Caribbean Economies Predicted to Grow Significantly This Year

The World Bank has forecasted a significant economic growth of 7.1% in the Caribbean this year, with continued robust performance at 5.7% in 2025.

However, excluding Guyana, growth is expected to be at 3.9% in 2024 and 4% in 2025 due to moderate tourism recovery and remittances.

The report also provides specific GDP growth projections for countries in the Caribbean region, such as The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname.

Moreover, the report mentions that Latin America and the Caribbean experienced economic growth slowdown due to the effects of monetary tightening in the latter part of 2023, and the recovery has been uneven across the region.

The forecast indicates a further decline in growth in 2024 before picking up to 2.7% in 2025.

However, there are significant risks to this forecast, including potential tighter global financial conditions, elevated local debt levels, a slowdown in China’s growth affecting exports, and climate change-related extreme weather events. Conversely, stronger economic activity in the United States could positively impact Central America and the Caribbean.

The Global Economic Prospects report also discusses the global economic outlook. It forecasts global growth to stabilize at 2.6% in 2024 before edging up to an average of 2.7% in 2025-26, which is below the pre-COVID-19 average.

The report emphasizes the need for international support, especially for the world’s poorest economies, to address punishing levels of debt, trade limitations, and costly climate events.

Furthermore, it highlights the importance of public investment in driving private investment growth and promoting economic development, especially in developing economies, which have seen a decline in public investment growth since the global financial crisis.