Finance Minister updates Chamber of Industry and Commerce on Meeting of the ECCB Monetary Council

(ZIZ News) — Finance Minister, the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris used Wednesday’s meeting of the St. Kitts-Nevis Chamber of Industry and Commerce to provide an update on his recent meeting with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s Monetary Council.

Dr. Harris said the meeting dealt with weighty matters of the financial services sector. He said they addressed the sector’s many challenges in the context of the globalising economy, the small size of member states and the limited opportunities for investment.

“In the midst of all those challenges which are there so deep-seated within the financial sector which therefore provides a significant challenge as to what we can do in the economy with that background, since the financial sector is like the lubricant that should keep things going smoothly. How do we advance?” Dr. Harris questioned.

He listed some of the challenges that were identified in the meeting.

“We are told for example that we have all these monies in deposits, we are big on deposits, we are smaller on loans. We are smaller in terms of meeting the expectations of people whose expectations have to be met if the country is going to advance and be transformed as a result of that own advancement,” he said.

The 81st Meeting of the ECCB Monetary Council was held in St. Kitts on Tuesday.