IMF Delegates – Latin and North America

Barbados

Dr Marion Williams
Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados

Dr Marion Williams has held the position of Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados since November 1, 1999.

She has worked in the areas of economics and finance at the Central Bank for over 25 years. She holds a PhD from the University of Surrey and a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of the West Indies. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Bankers (FCIB) of the UK, and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). Dr Williams was the first President and a founding member of the Barbados Institute of Banking and Finance, and is the current Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Caribbean Technical Assistance Centre.

She has represented the Bank at several meetings and conferences, both regionally and internationally, and has published articles in local, regional and international journals. She has conducted several consultancies for regional and international organizations and has served on several advisory boards and committees.

Before joining the Central Bank in 1973, Dr Williams was Manager of the Research Department of the East Caribbean Currency Authority.

She is the author of two books Liberalising a Regulated Banking System: The Caribbean Case, published by Avebury and Managing Public Finances in a Small Developing Economy – The Case of Barbados, published by Praeger.

The Current state of the Barbados economy

During the last decade the Barbadian economy has been forced to contend with increasing levels of competition and with the threatened removal of preferential treatment for sugar. Notwithstanding, Barbados’ economy continues to display resilience and investors remain confident. Economic diversification continues to form the nucleus of Barbados’ response to global changes, and renewed emphasis has been placed on service industries and on developing niche markets. In providing higher value-added services, such as financial services and software engineering, Barbados has sought to position itself to benefit from these growing areas of activity. These areas of activity utilise the country’s most valued resource, its human capital. Consequently, forward-looking policies, such as the Edutech project, which seek to introduce technological application to learning from the primary school level, are aimed at preparing the workforce for global changes. Emphasis has shifted towards services, and sectors such as tourism, now represent major sources of foreign exchange and employment.

After eight years of growth, the economy declined in 2001 as a result of the global recession, and the disruption to the travel industry following the September 11 attacks in the United States. Pro-active economic programmes, including a marketing support mechanism for the tourism sector, and a continued level of confidence exhibited by both domestic and external investors, led to economic recovery in 2002. All indicators point to a return to a sustainable path of economic and social development. Furthermore, prudent fiscal and monetary policies along with an innovative approach by the social partners to incomes policy, have ensured that inflation, and unemployment, by international standards, remain relatively low. The financial system, which is administered by the Central Bank of Barbados, is well regulated and supervised. In addition, consistent monetary policies aimed at safeguarding the parity of the exchange rate with the dollar, have also ensured the adequacy of foreign reserves, where the import reserve cover is approximately 36 weeks of imports.

This level of stability is a consequence of the policies of successive governments, and has not gone unnoticed by the international community. Barbados has been consistently ranked by the United Nations among the top three developing countries. Such a positive economic and social outlook has ensured that Barbados maintains its investment grade rating by rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.