has been severe and we are now looking at a more protracted economic shock than we initially conceived. barbados is not alone in this regard. for example, in june, the international monetary fund downgraded its global growth forecast by almost two percentage points just two months after publishing its april world economic outlook. the imf now projects global growth at – 4. 9 percent for 2020 and it is now predicting a more gradual recovery than originally thought. and even then, it states “ there is a higher - than - usual degree of uncertainty around this forecast. " as i reported in my most recent economic review, covid - 19 has triggered a deep recession in our island. overall, in the first half of the year, the economy contracted by almost 15 percent. our tourism and hospitality industries have been damaged, resulting in a decline in the performance of almost all other sectors. government ’ s revenues were depressed and more than 33, 000 jobs were lost as we had to temporarily close the economy to protect lives. job losses have slowed 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches and some workers have returned to work, but the financial cost of unemployment claims is proving significant. the protracted loss of jobs, particularly in the hospitality sector, now raises the spectre of financial challenges at the levels of government, the private sector and individuals. we are fortunate that pre - covid 19, we took measures to strengthen our public finances and to build our international reserve buffers. as we grapple with the crisis, our earlier success has catalysed additional resources from the international financial institutions. our reserves now exceed $ 2. 1 billion, continuing to rise despite the impact of the crisis on foreign exchange earnings. we have relaxed our targeted primary surplus for fy 2020 / 21 to accommodate expected lower revenues and the need for unplanned expenditures on health and the social safety net. in addition, the successful completion of our debt restructuring has created room to enable government to expand its capital works programme in an effort to generate opportunities for some of the displaced workers. challenging as it is, i remain confident that we will be able to ride out this crisis and to put our economy back on a sustainable growth path. i do understand, however, that there are those who are concerned about our capacity to honour our future debt obligations. they underestimate our resilience as a people. let me assure you, however, that creating and maintaining conditions that will facilitate growth over the medium term and enable debt and fiscal

of doing business, in part because of the time it takes for things to get done : getting permits, registering property, even paying taxes. they all impact our competitiveness, and we can only improve these services by changing our individual and collective mindset. let us see covid - 19, therefore, as a game - changer. the scope of the public health crisis is unparalleled in our lifetimes, and the economic fallout is not something even the worst - case scenarios in our stress tests could have predicted. it has exposed vulnerabilities at both the micro and macro levels. but at the same time, it has compelled us to find new ways of doing things and take definitive action in areas where we were still mulling over implementation. it has forced us to transform when we were planning to transition. covid - 19 is indeed transformative! let us play our part. i thank you. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches