PM: Gov’t doing all it can to fight inflation

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — While the government does not expect the national increase in the minimum wage to force layoffs in the private sector, Prime Minister Philip Davis said his administration is asking business owners to bear with them until the country regains its economic stability.

The cost of doing business locally continues to climb with several local businesses sharing concerns about closing their doors or the likelihood of terminations.

However, Davis told reporters last week that the government has not received those complaints.

He said: “The private sector has not said so, and in fact, we don’t expect it to have any impact, and that in consultation with them, don’t forget […] the increase in the minimum wage, was not a unilateral decision, it was a decision made by industry under the tripartite council which includes business, government, and unions and so it wasn’t a unilateral decision, so I don’t expect that there may be any fallout.”

Davis added that the government is doing all it can to assist various sectors in this inflationary period, explaining that they cannot do it alone and urging businesses to endure with them until things start to pick up in the economy.

“I do not act unilaterally, and as I have said, together we are all in this and together we’ll be able to get out of this so we are asking everyone to pitch in,” he said.

“The government has cut its revenue to enable and to be passed on to the consumer, we are asking grocers to, for a moment maybe lessen their profits until we get out of this mire that we’re in.

“So this is a sharing we’re hoping that they share with us, share the burden with us for a period,” Davis said.

Davis said that although many issues the country faces regarding inflation are “out of our control”, the government has put in place a number of programs to fight the financial predicament.

He continued: “We are targeting initiatives to combat inflation, first of all, what we have to recognize is that the external forces, beyond our control that’s feeding inflationary pressures that we have been suffering. What we can do we are doing.

“[…] We have lowered import duty on a number of food items and in other commonly used goods that come to the Bahamas we’ve don’t that. I have been engaging in conversations with transportation, MSC, and other boat owners that bring containers into the country.

“I’ve been able to get the 35 percent reduction in the cost of containers coming into the Bahamas from the far east. We are working on getting a similar reduction from the U.S. so already dropping, so those are things that we can do in engaging those streams that lend to the added cost to good in the Bahamas,” the prime minister said.