business@tribunemedia.net
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2023
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Dorian and COVID-19 cost Bahamas one year’s GDP t 5XJO DSJTFT DPTU DPVOUSZ CO JO MPTT BOE EBNBHFT t *%# EPVCMFT #BIBNBT FNFSHFODZ mOBODJOH UP N t /BTTBV T nPPE QSPOF BSFBT UP FYQBOE CZ CZ
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved doubling its crisis financing facility for The Bahamas to $200m after combined Dorian and COVID losses matched this nation’s annual economic output. Documents seen by Tribune Business show the multilateral lender’s executive directors on December 7, 2023, agreed to increase this nation’s contingent credit facility (CCF) by 100
percent from the original $100m to enable it to cope with healthrelated pandemics as well as catastrophic hurricanes. Accompanying reports revealed that The Bahamas is estimated to have suffered $13.1bn in total losses as a result of Dorian and the pandemic, a sum that is almost equal to the $13.526bn economic output - or gross domestic product (GDP) - this country is forecast to generate during the current 2023-2024 fiscal year. And, further illustrating The Bahamas’ need to have financing
Bahamian ‘Russian roulette’ with 30% uninsured drivers By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas is “really playing Russian roulette on the road” with its citizens’ lives by failing to crack down on the estimated 25-30 percent of drivers who are uninsured, insurers warned yesterday. Both Anton Saunders, RoyalStar Assurance’s managing director, and Timothy Ingraham, Summit Insurance Company’s chief executive, confirmed to Tribune Business that the industry has proposed digital-based solutions to the authorities that would help prevent the numerous “horror stories” resulting from traffic
fatalities, injuries and economic loss caused by uninsured drivers. Speaking after the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s traffic division head revealed that 50 percent, or half, of all vehicles involved in accidents in 2023 were uninsured, they argued that the failure to follow through with an electronic system that links the police to the Road Traffic Department and private insurer databases is creating loopholes that rogue drivers exploit with impunity. However, Mr Ingraham said he had been informed that government officials were “expecting approval” to “move forward any day now” with the first element of that project which
would allow property and casualty insurers to send digital motor vehicle insurance certificates directly to Road Traffic. This will confirm whether drivers possess the proper insurance, and help alert the authorities as to whether the necessary coverage has been renewed by the due date or if it has expired - a first step in trying to detect and catch those driving without protection. “The police have the facts more than us,” Mr Saunders told this newspaper over assertions by Chief Superintendent David Lockhart, the police traffic division head, that half the vehicles involved in traffic accidents are not insured.
No Xmas ‘shock’ over food prices JOHN RAY
BRIAN SIMMS KC
FTX Chapter 11 plan needs Bahamas deal By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net PLANS to bring FTX out of bankruptcy protection in the US cannot be finalised without agreement with their Bahamian counterparts as “ongoing good faith negotiations” between the two sides continue. John Ray, head of the 134 FTX entities presently in Chapter 11 protection under the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, at the weekend unveiled a reorganisation strategy to bring the crypto exchange out of bankruptcy that contains multiple footnotes showing key aspects are subject to agreement with the liquidators of its Bahamian subsidiary.
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SUPER Value’s president yesterday said consumers “won’t be shocked” by food costs over the Christmas period as she voiced hope for price stability in 2024. Debra Symonette told Tribune Business that food price inflation is “definitely not as bad as it was”, with increases having abated compared to the immediate post-COVID period and relatively few products increasing or decreasing in cost. Speaking after one of Super Value’s major competitors, BISXlisted AML Foods, said it had witnessed “price deflation” in certain categories of products, she confirmed that such trends have yet to become broad-based when it comes to food costs but pledged: “If we get a break, the consumer will get a break.” “The only item we have gone down on recently is corn beef, and that is because we had bought in such bulk that we got a good price on it, and we were able to offer customers a good price,” Ms Symonette told this newspaper. “And the only item we have gone
DAMAGE DONE BY HURRICANE DORIAN available to meet the demands of future emergencies, the IDB report said hurricane-related catastrophes have inflicted more than $6.7bn in total damages over the two decades between 2002 and 2022, with that figure exceeding more than 50 percent of this nation’s 2021 GDP.
As for COVID-19, the IDB revealed that the pandemic has been responsible for 844 deaths in The Bahamas through to July 12, 2023, with some 38,000 persons almost one in every ten residents - having been infected by the virus over a three-and-a-half year
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t &OEJOH BDDJEFOU AIPSSPS TUPSJFT OPU ASPDLFU TDJFODF t *OTVSFST BXBJU BDUJPO PWFS EJHJUBM CBTFE TPMVUJPOT t 6SHJOH UPVHIFS QFOBMUJFT BOE TUSJDUFS FOGPSDFNFOU “If the police are saying 50 percent of the people are not insured, then we in The Bahamas are really playing Russian roulette on the road,” the RoyalStar chief asserted. “To tackle this, this is not rocket science. You go down south,
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up on in any significant amount recently is juice, like the Bluebird and McArthur’s, because the vendor went up on price. “Otherwise, all of the other items have been remaining stable, which is very good. We are hoping this will continue, but we will not get our hopes up on prices that they will not go up in the New Year.” The Super Value president said that, as a country that imports at least 90 percent of what it consumes, The Bahamas is at the mercy of external forces such as global oil prices when it comes to the cost of goods. Sir Franklyn Wilson, the Arawak Homes and Sunshine Holdings chairman, on Monday said AML Foods’ disclosure should “change the mood” and improve consumer confidence heading into 2024. However, Gavin Watchorn, AML Foods president and chief executive, in his report to shareholders signalled that the price decline is not widespread and gave no indication of whether it its sustainable. And Ms Symonette indicated that price stability, rather than decreases, is likely to be the best consumers can hope for in the short-term. “There are certain items we may have seen slight decreases in, but there are others we are seeing increases in every now and then,” she explained. “I know eggs is one that decreased and is going up again slightly. I think we also saw a slight increase in sugar.
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THE OPENING ceremony of the British Colonial. Photo:Dante Carrer
British Colonial employs ‘stair step’ opening plan By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE British Colonial’s general manager yesterday affirmed the resort is “being very conservative” following its re-opening so as not to “overwhelm our staff” with a sudden surge in visitor demand. Dan McDermott said initial occupancies at the downtown Nassau property is where the resort projected them to be, but management remains keen to avoid selling rooms at
the “wrong price point” until they better understand the market response. He explained that staff are still being trained and using new software and, while daily room rates will likely increase, the resort is taking a “stair step” approach to ramping up its business following some $100m in renovations under owner, China Construction America (CCA). Mr McDermott said: “We’re being very conservative. I mean, we could sell more rooms, but we don’t want to sell at the
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