Barbados

The island was uninhabited when first settled by the British in 1627. Slaves worked the sugar plantations established on the island until 1834 when slavery was abolished. The economy remained heavily dependent on sugar, rum, and molasses production through most of the 20th century. The gradual introduction of social and political reforms in the 1940s and 1950s led to complete independence from the UK in 1966. In the 1990s, tourism and manufacturing surpassed the sugar industry in economic importance.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Barbadian dollar (ISO code: BBD)
* Central bank discount rate: 10% (31 December 2008)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 10.03% (31 December 2008)
* Stock of money (M1): $1.637 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $3.701 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Barbados: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	2 468	2 559	2 548	2 476	2 694	2 824	3 005	3 191	3 409 	3 682
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Barbados: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	91.625	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Barbados: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	37.099	
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Barbados: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	40.114	
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	2.470 	
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Barbados on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Barbados
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries