FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2024
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Auto dealers optimistic 2023’s Drug lure: 50% 40% surge keeps momentum of school leavers lacking diploma
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
t /PU TFFO MBTU ZFBS T TBMFT AGPS WFSZ MPOH UJNF A BAHAMIAN new auto dealer yesterday voiced optimism that price t #.%" DIJFG stability and better availCFUUFS JG TVQQMZ UIFSF ability will further boost sales in 2024 following a 40 percent year-over- t )PQFT ABDIJMMFT IFFM year surge for the first 11 months last year. FBTFE QSJDFT TUBCJMJTF Ben Albury, the Bahamas Motor Dealers Association’s (BMDA) president, told Tribune Business the sector was “hoping the trend” from 2023 continues into the current year after it enjoyed “numbers we haven’t seen for a very long time”. Estimating that his dealership, Bahamas Bus and Truck, would “easily” have sold 20-30 percent more vehicles last year had several of its more popular models been available, he said there were signs that the industry’s supply chain
“Achilles heel” may further ease in 2024. And, with new and used vehicle prices having increased by between 15-20 percent locally since the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Albury told this newspaper any signs of stability will provide a further much-needed boost for the market following its previous struggles in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. While his dealership had not hit its December target, he added that all
signs suggested 2003 was “much better than the year before” even though the final month’s vehicle sale numbers have yet to be compiled. “We’re actually quit a ways ahead of the year before even taking into consideration that we only have figures for the first 11 months,” the BMDA chief said. “Even up until the end of November, we far surpassed 2022. The numbers I’m seeing are the best pretty much since they started being recorded.
t A4PCFSJOH #BIBNBT BNPOH XPSME T NPTU VOFRVBM TPDJFUJFT By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
BEN ALBURY We’re about 40 percent up year-over-year for the first 11 months. I’m hoping that when we get the final figures in it will be much better. “Some dealers are up more than others. It just depends on how the numbers are shared. I’m anxious to see what December brought. December was not a bad month for me, but it was not what I was expecting. It wasn’t a bad month by any stretch, but I didn’t
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Dorian ‘hangover’ cuts outlook for the Summit By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN insurer yesterday voiced optimism it will soon break free of its “Hurricane Dorian hangover” and escape any potential downgrade by the industry’s main creditworthiness assessor. Timothy Ingraham, Summit Insurance Company’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that yesterday’s decision by AM Best to cut its outlook on the company from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ was simply the rating agency “saying the future does not look as
TIMOTHY INGRAHAM bright as it used to” rather than a reflection on its financial strength. While it maintained its A- (Excellent) and ‘a-’ (Excellent) ratings on
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‘Whistleblower’ official should go before PAC By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A TOP civil servant’s attorney yesterday argued that what his client has allegedly suffered must “in no circumstance be allowed to happen” to other public officials who seek to expose purported “wrongdoing”. Ashley Williams, in a statement responding to Tribune Business inquiries, confirmed Antoinette Thompson’s refiled lawsuit “focuses on the pivotal provisions within the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Public Finance Management Act which safeguard transparency, accountability and ethical
governance within governmental departments and ministries”. He argued that the allegations made by the permanent secretary in the then-Ministry of Transport and Housing, until she was placed on “unrecorded leave” in April 2023, “must be confronted” regardless of the outcome and suggested his client should appear before Parliament’s spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), despite the ongoing litigation. “The allegations made by Ms Thompson must be confronted despite the ultimate outcome, so that what she has allegedly experienced
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“A SIGNIFICANT” number of young Bahamians are being lured into the drug trade as 50 percent of high school leavers graduate without even a diploma, a policy document is asserting. The newly-released Apprenticeship Policy Framework for The Bahamas, linking poor educational achievement and lack of basic skills to high crime and poverty levels as well as poor productivity and weak economic performance, voiced optimism that the launch of “work-based learning” for students in grade seven and upwards will “shift cultural norms” in these areas. The policy paper, released over the Christmas holidays, also suggested
PETER GOUDIE The Bahamas is among the world’s most unequal societies with its close rating to South Africa - the worst offender - branded “a sobering thought”. And it suggested the results of the last Bahamas Labour Force survey showed that “immigrants are enjoying the economic growth and not the local people” despite the economy’s more
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