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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2022
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‘Hope and pray’: Food, energy cost hike may last three years By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIANS were yesterday urged to “hope and pray” that the World Bank’s forecast of high food and energy costs lasting three years does not come true, with cooking oil and other staples increasing by up to 80 percent in recent months. Philip Beneby, the Retail Grocers Association’s president, told Tribune Business he has never experienced such food price volatility before. He added that it has left Bahamian retailers and wholesalers with little choice but “to play the hand we’re dealt” given that this country’s $1bn annual import bill makes it highly
• Retail Grocers’ chief: We need World Bank to be wrong • Cooking oil surges 80%; some food rises are ‘excessive’ • Bahamian distributors must ‘play the hand we’re dealt’ vulnerable to inflationary shocks outside its control. He spoke as the World Bank, in a grim outlook for Bahamian consumers and others worldwide, predicted that the commodity price shock inflicted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will result in expensive food and energy prices
lasting for a three-year period until 2024. The Washington D. C. based institution added that this risked returning the world economy to the stagflation era of the 1970s, when inflation combined with low to no growth and high unemployment.
“The World Bank has more information than I have, and it has more information than you have,” Mr Beneby said in response. “That is their prediction. We can only hope that it is not so and try our best to hold prices as much as we can in order for us to stay in business. “With high prices, that trickles down from the top to the bottom. The only thing I can say is I hope and pray it doesn’t come true. I hope and pray that they’re [the World Bank] wrong. Businesses have been trying to cut back as much as they can and hold the line, but there’s only so much we can do when high prices take place. At the end of the day, we still have to keep our doors open. It’s not easy. You have to juggle,
keep your head above water and stay in business.” Bahamian companies can only absorb increased input costs to a point before it erodes their margins to the point where they become unprofitable, thus leaving them with no choice but to pass at least a portion of these hikes on to consumers. As a country that imports around 90 percent of what it consumes, The Bahamas is especially exposed to soaring external inflation sparked by COVID-19 and subsequent supply chain disruption. These effects have now been worsened by the Ukraine conflict, which has sparked further spikes on global oil prices. The resultant increase in gasoline
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‘No more blight’ on Rum Cay’s revival OBIE FERGUSON
• Verdict paves way for Sumner Point regeneration • Aiming to make marina ‘jewel it has always been’ • Eyes new operator to give island ‘what it deserves’
Judge: ‘Difficult to digest’ Gov’ts Rum Cay claims
Union chief: UoB liveable wage ‘can’t be brought in now’
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A SUPREME Court judge has removed the last remaining “blight” on Rum Cay’s economic revival by rejecting the Government’s claim to ownership of a key 15-acre parcel at a major marina asset. Bobby Little, Sumner Point Properties’ principal, told Tribune Business that Justice Indra Charles’ verdict in favour of buyers who acquired lots in the development (see other article on Page 1B) “allows me to make a decision on which direction to go forward”. Armed with a marina licence, and having just obtained approval for dredging to re-open its main entrance channel, he revealed that he will likely seek a buyer for the former restaurant, cottage and fuel farm site that was destroyed during his
A SUPREME Court judge says it is “difficult to digest” that the Prime Minister’s Office would assert a 15-acre Rum Cay land parcel was Crown Land when this totally contradicted evidence from the Government’s own surveyors. Justice Indra Charles, in a lengthy April 20, 2022, verdict, said the Government’s stance - first asserted under the last Ingraham administration - had “no evidence” to back it and was contrary to multiple findings by Department of Lands and Survey personnel who confirmed the tract had “accreted” over the years as a result of the sea receding. Rejecting evidence given by former acting surveyor general, Thomas Ferguson, in support of the Government’s claim, she instead granted a certificate of title to trustees representing the late purchaser who had bought
SEE PAGE FOUR
• ‘No evidence’ to back stance on 15-acre tract • PM’s Office contradicted own land surveyors • Accepted property taxes despite title claim
our customers from fraudulent charges. “We contacted via e-mail all customers who may have been affected and asked them to take additional steps to review their account statements and request replacement cards from their banks. We created a specialised contact team to individually assist each affected customer.” Aeropost said it was working with card issuing banks to try and reduce the fees and administrative costs associated with ordering new credit and debit cards. “Banks require each cardholder to contact them directly,” it added. “In the same way, we understand that our customers have concerns related to fraudulent charges. Card issuers are familiar with cases like these and have pre-established protocols
THE $2,625-$3,550 livable wage suggested by a University of the Bahamas study “cannot be implemented at this time”, a trade union leader argued yesterday, adding: “We’ve got to keep the hen that lays the eggs.” Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business that the economy’s fragile recovery from COVID-19 meant that such a hike in worker earnings could not be introduced in one shot given the immense disruption it would threaten to cause. Speaking after Keith Bell, minister of labour and Immigration, yesterday said the Davis administration remained committed to replacing the minimum wage with a so-called livable wage, Mr Ferguson acknowledged that while the trade unions also remain committed to the concept any such reform must be phased-in to ensure “a win-win” for employers and workers alike. While the minimum wage is presently “very far apart” from the monthly livable variety recommended by University of The Bahamas (UoB) researchers, Mr Ferguson suggested their findings represented a benchmark that the country must ultimately aim for. “That’s something that cannot be implemented in The Bahamas at this point in time,” the TUC chief told this newspaper. “We
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SEE PAGE FIVE
five lots from Sumner Point Marina - three of which lie on the disputed 15-acre tract. And, in a verdict which paves the way for Sumner Point’s developer to revive what is arguably Rum Cay’s prime economic asset after a decade-long standstill, Justice Charles rejected all claims thrown at the trustees by the Government. Dismissing its
SEE PAGE SIX
Just 6% of clients hit by data breach at Sebas’ venture By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE e-commerce platform owned by Sebas Bastian yesterday said only 6 percent of customers were impacted by a recent data breach as it sought to reassure that all necessary measures are being taken to rectify the problem. Aeropost, in a statement to Tribune Business, did not provide a gross figure for how many clients’ credit card details may have been compromised. Given its panregional client base across The Bahamas, Caribbean and Central America, that 6 percent could potentially represent hundreds - if not several thousand - customers. Explaining what occurred, Aeropost said: “Over the weekend we received reports of fraudulent
SEBAS BASTIAN activity involving Aeropost customer credit cards. Although our systems keep all customer information encrypted and under a PCI certified zone, our security monitoring protocol identified
unusual activity on a server used for file management. The server we identified as being exposed to a potential breach accounted data for 6 percent of our customers. “We are committed to protecting every one of our customers personal data and are therefore taking these precautionary measures to eliminate any additional risk to our customers.” The e-commerce platform detailed five specific steps taken to remedy the breach, mitigate risk and inform those who had been impacted. “We disabled the breached server and the data transmission services that included it,” the company added. “We deleted all login credentials in our systems (passwords) and payment information. We opened collaborative channels with banking and governmental entities in order to identify the attackers and protect