Barbados is in a serious debt trap and the sooner government is willing to admit this and come up with a strategic development plan, the better.This is the view of retired university Professor of Economics Michael Howard who laments that while borrowing is necessary for economies like Barbados, the country is facing a major problem because government’s present borrowing is unsustainable.“There is a danger of borrowing too much and this is what [Prime Minister Mia] Mottley seems not to understand,” he told Barbados TODAY.Howard’s comments came on the heels of Government’s announcement on Wednesday that an agreement had been reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a fresh Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement to support the new three-year Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme. Under the EFF, which is to become available as early as November, the island will get access to about US$110 million over the three years, an equivalent of $85.05 million of Special Drawing Rights (SDR).
