By INDERIA SAUNDERS ~ Guardian Business Reporter ~ Inderia@nasguard.com:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is suggesting countries like The Bahamas are at a greater risk for expanding their poverty rates if reforms are not immediately made to expedite economic growth.

It comes as Bahamians await even the smallest bit of news on this nation's poverty rate, with the latest report more than five years old.

"Promoting faster economic growth and reducing poverty is now even more important," reads an October report from the IMF entitled, 'Regional Economic Outlook: Western Hemisphere'. "Not everything has changed since the onset of the global crisis. Now, with a post-crisis environment less favorable to growth, the case for acting on deep reforms to accelerate growth and reduce poverty is stronger than ever," the report states.

According to the report, before the global economic crisis the region was challenged in general with keeping up with the per capita income growth of other countries. It's a situation that saw poverty rates in the region remain high, says the report.

The matter is one that Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing said did not apply largely to The Bahamas, given our poverty rate was a lot lower than most of our neighboring countries. He suggests that the nation's poverty rate is in no way comparable to others around the region, and hence, our problem and means of correcting it would be different.

In the Bahamas Living Conditions Survey, released in 2004, government acknowledged that 9.3 percent of the population was living on the minimum amount of money needed for an individual to satisfy basic needs over a specific period of time.

It further noted that the minimum amount of money needed to afford a satisfactory low-cost diet, with allowances for non-food needs in The Bahamas, was estimated at $7.84 per person per day, which translates into an annual income of $2,863 per person.

It's a situation, say analysts, that is sure to have worsened in recent months as Bahamians face unemployment nearing 15 percent in New Providence and 18 percent in Grand Bahama. It's a situation that is sure to have manifested in a growing poverty rate, say analysts, with food costs having soared above the rest of the Caribbean in recent months.

Presently there is no news of when a new poverty report will be released, with a source close to the Department of Statistics telling Guardian Business that the 2005 poverty rate study was still not done.

October 27, 2009

thenassauguardian