Caribbean nations must stop defaulting to adding more debt as the answer after every disaster shock, instead layering the full range of risk transfer and financing tools to enhance liquidity following events and ensure timely, responsive capital flow, according to comments made by the Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados.
Speaking at the Caribbean Knowledge Forum 2025 event this week, Dr. Kevin Greenidge explained that while the Caribbean cannot control the economic shocks it faces, “we can control the buffers, rules, and systems that decide whether a shock becomes a crisis or just a difficult quarter.”
He highlighted that, “Small states suffer materially higher disaster losses than larger economies. On average, annual disaster costs for small states sit near two percent of GDP, several times the burden in larger countries. In the Caribbean, individual events can erase years of capital formation in one night.”
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