Link pay increases to productivity rather than using increased compensation to chase higher prices.<\/p>\n
That was the advice recently from Central Bank of Barbados Governor Dr Kevin Greenidge when asked if the country\u2019s improved economic performance meant there was space to give public sector workers a wage and salary increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cEconomics should dictate that wages and salaries increases any country should be aligned with productivity. When you have strong employment growth, . . . one of the things to think about is lining up compensation with that. Compensation should reflect productivity, not inflation,\u201d he said on Wednesday during the Central Bank\u2019s third quarter press conference at the Courtney Blackman Grande Salle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always said it even before I became governor, if you chase inflation, inflation is faster than a Usain Bolt, you ain\u2019t catching it, you\u2019re just pushing it. You focus on productivity growth, and therefore the more productive we are, the more we can compensate. That\u2019s really the economic analysis
for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Central Bank\u2019s January to September economic review, presented by Greenidge, stated that \u201cwages and salaries grew by $15.9 million and also contributed to the expansion in current expenditure at end-September\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report said too, that inflation, the rate at which prices increase, \u201cslowed for the 25th consecutive month on a year-on-year moving average basis, as imported costs fell\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 12-month moving average inflation rate slowed to 0.5 per cent by August 2025, 1.8 percentage points lower than August 2024,\u201d Greenidge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe slower rate reflected smaller price increases for food, non-alcoholic beverages and health, along with continued reductions in clothing, transport, recreation, housing and utilities, and household furnishings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLower international oil and reduced freight costs over the year further contributed to the easing of domestic inflation. Higher demand for restaurant services pushed up the August point-to-point rate to 1.2 per cent, yet underlying inflation remained subdued.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Central Bank\u2019s economic outlook is that domestic inflation will \u201cremain low and stable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe local inflation rate declined markedly during the first eight months of 2025, tilting the year\u2019s outturn towards the low-end of the forecast range, at around one per cent,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
There were also external factors to consider, including \u201cpersistent geopolitical tensions in key oil-producing regions\u201d and additional United States tariffs on its trading partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cPotential spikes in shipping costs and weather-related disruptions to local food production could also present temporary upward risks to the inflation outlook,\u201d the Governor stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll considered, the 12-month moving average inflation rate is likely to settle near the lower end of the forecast range between one and 2.5 per cent by year-end. This relatively low inflationary environment will help preserve domestic purchasing power and support confidence in the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Link pay increases to productivity rather than using increased compensation to chase higher prices. That was the advice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[143141,143142,28,101],"class_list":["post-266821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-pay-should-reflect-productivity","tag-barbados-nation","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}