ECCB FIGURES SHOW ECONOMY GREW BY 5.3% IN 2021; TREVOR WALKER RAISES QUESTIONS

Member of Parliament for Barbuda Hon. Trevor Walker has questioned the 5.3 per cent growth in real Gross Domestic Product for Antigua and Barbuda in 2021, saying the figure provided by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank is much lower.
He challenged the GDP figures during his contribution to the budget debate in Parliament on Tuesday, saying the information he had seen showed the economy grew by less than 2 per cent.
However, an official of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank confirms Antigua and Barbuda’s economy grew by 5.3 per cent in 2021 and is projected to expand by a further 4.7 per cent in 2022.
These figures are also contained in the Central Bank’s Estimates and Projections for 2021 – 2023, a copy of which has been obtained by ABS News.
Meanwhile, an official at the Central Bank says it is in the process of updating its website with the latest projections and says there was a delay because some countries were tardy in providing their feedback on the Bank’s projections.
Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hon. Gaston Browne told ABS in response to MP Walker’s claim, “The Member for Barbuda has sought to deceive the people once again. The rate of growth of 1.67 per cent was the projected rate as at June 2021. The information he quoted is stale and is designed to deceive, obfuscate and malign.”