It is really sad and pathetic when anyone will make a statement without any supporting evidence, to further a political agenda; to me this is tantamount to ‘fear mongering’, especially in light of what should be considered good news.

“Davis is ‘relieved’ that downgrade avoided’ – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Opposition Leader Philip Brave Davis said yesterday though he is relieved that international ratings agency Moody’s has spared The Bahamas another downgrade, he is taking a wait and see approach because the government has yet to provide a cohesive fiscal plan for the county.

Speaking to The Nassau Guardian, Davis said, ‘I am relieved by what happened.

‘I can now say that I can breathe a sigh of relief on it.

‘What I note is that a key factor will be the revision of our GDP.”

‘We have suspected all along that our economy is larger than how [it] was showing and it appears that, that position may bear more fruit when the Department of Statistics revises the status of our GDP.’

On Friday, Moody’s confirmed the country’s Baa3 rating.

However, the ratings giant has changed the country’s economic outlook from stable to negative.”

It would appear that anytime the Leader of The Opposition or anyone in his party gets caught not knowing what to say, when they really should be saying nothing at all, they resort to the language of ‘gloom and doom’,  this is amusing, because this is exactly what they had once accused the Free National Movement (FNM) of when in opposition, at which time they warned the then Christie administration of the missteps they were taking as it related to the economy, which led to four downgrades and here they are at it again as we have avoided yet another downgrade, with the possibility of at the very least, stabilizing the economic down fall brought about by the Christie administration.

In this ‘doom and gloom; language of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), the country, if the Minnis administration were to take the austerity measures which it took, which was partly the reason for the down grade being avoided, the county was supposed to have experienced another recession  but what does Davis say about these measures?

Referring to these plans announced by the Minnis administration and their impact on the Moody’s decision, Davis said, ‘I know that the report has spoken to that but what you have to look at is that those announcements that they made were not made during the budget debate.

‘And so, I have to treat that as suspect because it was always our view that the government, the way they talked down the economy, and I think this report speaks to that as well, how the government pictured our economy; and so I suspect these Moody’s people, what they have intended because of what they heard, the government than said that they are going to issue what I call these austerity measures.”

 …..What?!

It is my understanding that certain cut backs were announced [austerity measures] and carried out by the Minnis administration, as it related to attempts to stabilize the economy and as Mr. Davis admits he was fully aware of them and it would seem as if they may have a positive effect, so exactly what is he [Mr. Davis] talking about when he seems to struggles to make an issue of them not being in the Budget Communication?

Maybe former Minister of State for Finances, Michael Halkitis can shed some light on what is going on here.

“Former Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis said yesterday that the Christie administration was on the correct course with managing the country’s finances during the it’s term.

As a guest on Guardian Radio’s ‘Morning Blend’ with host Dwight Strachan, Halkitis said, ‘I believe we were on the right track.

‘Hurricane Matthew threw everything out of whack.

Before Hurricane Matthew we were headed for a [GFS] deficit of under $100 million, ‘Hurricane Mathew came in and devastated the country; devastated the economy and devastated the revenue of the government.’

The major storm ravaged parts if The Bahamas in October 2016 to the tune of an estimated $600 million, according to the Christie administration.” 

So now Mr. Halkitis brings us to another sour spot for the Christie administration as he seems to make an attempt to clear his name; that lingering question of exactly what happened to the money borrowed to aid in hurricane relief that he claims ‘devastated the economy’? 

Then there is the question; how many of these downgrades occurred between the period when Value-Added Tax (VAT) was introduced and proclaimed to be exceeding all expectations and Hurricane Matthew?

It is clear that while Mr. Davis claims relief over the country avoiding another downgrade, as he has overseen four while being Deputy Prime Minister, he also seems to attempt to make an issue out of a non-issue, while Mr. Halkitis does his best to clear his ‘good name’.

 The Progressive Liberal Party continues to fail for one reason, it is their nature.

END