St. Kitts And Nevis Outperforming Most OECS Member States, OAS Ambassador Reveals
Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 23 , 2020 (ZIZ News):
By: Chaïra Flanders
St. Kitts and Nevis is currently outperforming most member states of the Organization of American States (OAS).
This according to St. Kitts and Nevis’ Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador His Excellency Dr. Everson Hull who was at the time sharing updates about the nation’s standing while remotely appearing on the panel of the September 22 edition of Leadership Matters.
“St. Kitts and Nevis is outperforming most of the 34 member states of the Organisation of American States (OAS). By outperforming them, I am focusing primarily on a country’s ability to provide for the welfare of its people. This is often observed by a country’s net migration rates. When a country is not doing well, the masses tend to head for the exits and move around in search of better alternative opportunities”, he said.
Ambassador Hull also revealed that a new World Bank report shows that St. Kitts and Nevis has a higher per capita income than some oil rich countries.
“There is very little out migration of the masses from St. Kitts and Nevis leaving the island to seek refuge in any other countries. With the single exception of the Bahamas and most recently Canada, St. Kitts and Nevis is now ranked 3rd in per capita income as the Prime Minister stated, among western hemispheric states. I note also that as of August 18 2020, updated data from the World Bank shows that St. Kitts and Nevis now has a higher per capita income than our oil rich friends in Trinidad and Tobago”, Dr. Hull explained.
He said it was also important to note that St. Kitts and Nevis is outperforming countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. Besides Trinidad and Tobago and within our own CARICOM region, St. Kitts-Nevis is outperforming Barbados and Jamaica.
Ambassador Hull said although St. Kitts and Nevis is a not a country with gold nor bauxite, the twin island federation has what he deems “a strong government that established and pursued a prosperity agenda that has been successful on holding the line on taxes, in fostering growth in foreign direct investment”.
He also said that our nation has “adopted a sound fiscal policy of living within our means, meeting an unconscionably high outstanding debt load or reducing that from 180% of GDP to a manageable and impressive 57%”.
St. Kitts and Nevis currently has the lowest Debt-to-GDP ratio in the OECS and was the first to outdo the Debt-to-GDP target of 60 percent by 2030 set by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).