St. Lucia- Opposition Criticizes Budget

 

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC - The opposition St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) has been criticizing the Government’s EC$1.2 billion (US$452,830,188) budget, accusing the current administration of failing to address the food crisis looming over the regional and international community.

 Opposition Leader Dr. Kenny Anthony, in his contribution to the debate on the 2008/2009 estimates of expenditure, warned of a crisis facing the local economy and said that the global food situation could become a threat to national security.

 He suggested that the government change course and redesign its approach to rising food prices, insisting that price controls cannot solve the problem.

 “Just because you reduce on the margin of profit on your first shipments, prices may go down, but that’s it. If prices continue to increase when you import, automatically the prices will go up, and that is the lesson of the prices we currently have under price control,” Dr. Anthony told the House of Assembly last week Wednesday.
 “Dealing with the issue of process have to be more fundamental that this,” he added, suggesting that Government had introduced price controls to give citizens the impression it was doing something about the cost of living problem.

 The former Prime Minister has also questioned why the local economy had fared much worse than those of other Caribbean islands facing the same problems.

 “Why are we in this sorry predicament today. What went wrong with the economy that it could slide from a growth rate of 5.2 percent in 2006, according to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, to a growth rate of 0.5 percent in 2007. St. Lucia is entering a crisis like it never has before in the last 15 years,” he said.

 He explained that any economy plummeting to 0.5 percent over a one-year period suggests a country in recession, with signs such as rising unemployment, problems with prices, and stagnant wages becoming increasingly clear. The SLP leader said the budget was heavily financed by borrowing and the projected economic growth rate of 7 percent in 2008 was unrealistic.

 “This is not to say that it is impossible to get a 7 percent growth rate because countries like Anguilla in the OECS achieved an 11 percent growth rate, but based on the Government’s prediction you may think that St. Lucia is a modern Peoples Republic of China and therefore in a position to grow by 7 percent,” he said.

 Dr. Anthony noted that none of the international agencies forecasts that the St. Lucia economy would record that kind of growth next year, with every single one discounting the possibility.

 “The harsh reality is that you have a sinking economic base and have described the international environment as being particularly difficult so where is the basis for this growth that the government now promises?” he asked.

 

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