The Bahamas Government remains optimistic about the state of the economy going forward, notwithstanding the decision by Moody’s Investor Services to proceed with a downgrade to the sovereign credit rating, taking comfort that the Baa3 rating is still investment grade and that the economic outlook has been upgraded to stable by the agency.
The Ministry of Finance said today that the latter assessment show that Moody’s acknowledges that the economic developments underway stand to enhance the resilience of the Bahamian economy. According to the Ministry, *”The Government’s perspective on the Bahamian economy remains positive and its commitment undeterred in pursuing the necessary policy reform measures and initiatives to secure durable growth, accompanied by broadened employment opportunities and greater fiscal sustainability with debt reduction.”* To this end, the Government is moving swiftly to advance the many real sector initiatives underway that are poised to deliver, over the near-term horizon, further concrete, measurable contributions in these key economic policy areas.
The Statement also confirmed that fiscal sustainability and debt reduction remain high on the Government’s policy agenda, and are being supported by deliberate measures to modernize and enhance revenue administration and control expenditures. The National Development Plan was touted as being set to deal strategically with the elimination of various structural impediments to growth, thereby contributing to the reform of the domestic economy. *”The Government’s opinion is that The Bahamas’ economic fundamentals still support a strong creditworthiness assessment and, based on its proactive approach to addressing existing policy concerns, is confident that this rating outcome is temporary and an improvement will be secured in the short-term.”*