Governor points to significance of BERT 2026

With the Mia Amor Mottley administration returned to office for a third term, the plan to transform Barbados’ economy must now take centre stage, especially boosting the country’s productivity and competitiveness, including by completing key reforms and accelerating private sector investment.

Central Bank Governor Dr The Most Honourable Kevin Greenidge yesterday underscored the importance of these initiatives and the overall implementation of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation 2026 (BERT 2026) plan.

International credit rating agency Fitch said separately on Friday that last Wednesday’s General Election victory positioned Government “to continue its reform programme with . . . BERT” and that the administration was well placed to make further progress in key areas.

BERT 2026 was laid in Parliament before Barbadians went to the polls and Greenidge saw its successful implementation as central to future economic prospects.

“BERT 2026 represents the third phase of Barbados’ reform journey. The first phase stabilised the economy. The second restored growth. This phase is about transformation,” he said.

“The importance of BERT 2026 is that it moves us beyond fixing what was broken and toward building what is sustainable. Stabilisation gave us fiscal discipline, restored reserves and rebuilt credibility. Growth returned activity but transformation is about changing the structure of the economy so that growth is stronger, more resilient and more inclusive.”

Main focus

Greenidge noted that increasing productivity was the main focus.

“Barbados cannot rely on volume growth alone. We must produce more value per worker, per dollar of investment, and per unit of infrastructure,” he said.

“That means modernising public services, reducing friction in permits and approvals, improving digital infrastructure, strengthening logistics and building higher-value export sectors. Productivity is the foundation of higher wages, stronger public finances and long-term prosperity.”

Greenidge said competitiveness was the second pillar and that “we must make Barbados easier to do business in, easier to invest in and easier to live and work in”.

“That includes completing reforms in customs, business registration, financial markets and capital access. It also means strengthening institutions like Invest Barbados and ensuring that private capital, domestic and foreign, can move into productive sectors efficiently,” he explained.

“Resilience is equally critical. Barbados remains vulnerable to climate shocks and global volatility. BERT 2026 embeds climate resilience, renewable energy expansion, water and food security, and disaster risk management into the core economic framework. Resilience is not a separate environmental agenda; it is economic risk management.”

A number of reforms were earmarked in the BERT plans of 2018 and 2022, and Greenidge said that “completion of key reforms is essential”.

“Some of the most complex stateowned enterprises still require restructuring to improve efficiency and reduce fiscal risk. That work must be completed. Stronger governance, clearer performance targets, and reduced transfers from the central government will free up fiscal space for investment in people and infrastructure,” he said.”

Barbados’ future economic performance is also dependent on expanded private sector investment, Greenidge stressed.

“Public investment alone cannot deliver transformation. We need deeper capital markets, stronger SME governance, operationalisation of the Innovation Growth Market, effective public-private partnership frameworks, and a pipeline of investable projects.

“The role of the state is to remove barriers, provide credible policy direction and crowd in private capital.”

His view was that BERT 2026 must ultimately “become a platform for broad-based growth”.

“That means growth that raises productivity, strengthens fiscal fundamentals, deepens domestic value creation and expands opportunities for young Barbadians. Transformation is not about a single sector or project. It is about aligning fiscal policy, structural reform, private investment, and human capital so that growth benefits the entire society,” Greenidge said.

“If we maintain discipline, complete the outstanding reforms, and focus relentlessly on execution, BERT 2026 can position Barbados not just to grow, but to grow stronger and more resilient in a more uncertain global environment.”

Fitch, meanwhile, said the election outcome “facilitates the latest iteration of the Government’s reform programme”.

“BERT 2026 follows two successful programmes that focused first on stabilisation of government finances and the economy, and then on economic growth. The country also completed an International Monetary Fund programme last year,” the credit rating agency stated.

Shifts focus

“The third BERT programme shifts the reform focus toward longterm transformation of the economy, aiming to ameliorate challenges relating to labour productivity growth, investment gaps, climate and external risks, and contingent liabilities from state-owned enterprises.”

Fitch called BERT 2026 “an ambitious attempt to tackle structural constraints on potential growth”.

It’s view, however, was that “the record of successful reforms backed by strong political commitment, a supportive Social Partnership and the Government’s newly refreshed mandate position it to make further progress in key areas”.

It recalled that “previous BLP governments had already moved public finances onto a more sustainable path, with debt to GDP falling to 94.6 per cent in 2025 from a peak of 178.9 per cent in 2018”.

Fitch added: “The debt ratio is still high, the 2025 ‘B’ category median was 53.4 per cent, but the positive outlook on Barbados’s ‘B+’ rating reflects Fitch’s expectation that it will decline further, as continued fiscal discipline causes deficits to swing to surpluses from the fiscal year ending March 2027.

“International reserves increased to US$1.5 billion in 2025 from a low of US$200 million in January 2018, providing additional buffers against external shocks. Fiscal stabilisation has led to renewed investor confidence in government paper, as indicated by Barbados’s reentry into global capital markets in June 2025 with a US$500 million bond issue.”

Fitch said the institutionalisation of reforms, ensuring they persist beyond the current administration, “is key for the long-term stability of the government’s finances and continued debt reduction”.

“A possible third IMF programme could serve as an emergency fiscal backstop, although not this is not currently in development,” it noted. (SC)

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