{"id":249481,"date":"2020-05-13T09:41:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T13:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=249481"},"modified":"2021-03-14T16:49:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T20:49:53","slug":"dominica-freedom-party-statement-on-covid-19-in-dominica-may-11-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominica-freedom-party-statement-on-covid-19-in-dominica-may-11-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominica Freedom Party statement on COVID-19 in Dominica (May 11, 2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Dominica Freedom Party congratulate you the people of Dominica for your adherence to the social distancing recommendations and for your respect of the curfew and lockdown as our country seeks to minimize risk to life from the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0 We are thankful that no lives have been lost of the 16 persons officially reported to have been infected with the new coronavirus, most of whom have recovered. We urge our continue vigilance and pragmatism as the quasi-lock down and curfew is gradually eased.<\/p>\n

But an economic disaster is certainly looming in our land \u2013 the result of a double whammy \u2013 loss of CBI revenue and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic!\u00a0 A significant worsening in social conditions will result and the already-low quality of life in the nation will drop.\u00a0 A key challenge will be how to prevent the situation from becoming chaotic and how do we ultimately restore the economic health of our country.<\/p>\n

But we as we have previously indicated, the economy of Dominica was already weak and declining prior to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. \u00a0However, the COVID-19 pandemic is making the situation worse.\u00a0 To minimize the pain that is to come and to reposition the country\u2019s economy, a number of strategies must be contemplated.\u00a0 In that regards it would be desirable for there to be prepared a meaningful rapid relief package and an economic stimulus package to respectively address the immediate social impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the people and awaken the economy.\u00a0 But given the lack of fiscal reserves and the poor state of government finances, the current administration will need to borrow to finance such a package.\u00a0 The Dominica Freedom Party has recommended that the government approaches the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) for such support.\u00a0 Though there may still be fiscal financing shortfalls after inputs from these multilateral institutions, their inputs could be very helpful.<\/p>\n

What then does the government need to finance?\u00a0 First, they need to finance a huge fiscal deficit (expenditure exceeding revenue) that was already confronting the country prior to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic but that will be made much worst by the pandemic.\u00a0 This threatens to rattle the country including through difficulty to pay civil servants and cuts in expenditure to include that on social programmes.<\/p>\n

Secondly, given the unfolding pandemic, the government would need to consider funding an immediate relief programme as if this is not done, there could be much social hardship and heightened social and citizen security challenges that would, in turn, make it more difficult to restore our country once the COVID-related risks have abated. Even if the quasi-lockdown is lifted in Dominica, lockdowns among our trading partner countries including the USA and the unfolding pandemic-induced global recession will continue to depress economic activity in Dominica, and thus there may still be a need for social relief.\u00a0 But we pause here to re-iterate that should financing become available, the government should not use a relief programme as a political tool.<\/p>\n

An immediate relief package could include but not necessarily be limited to the following areas.<\/p>\n