On the heels of the recent insistent warnings from within the region that the Caribbean’s food security status might not now be as reassuring as we might have imagined the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has given notice that countries in the region should brace themselves for what a Caribbean Media Corporation report says will be the “prolonged effects of external economic shocks in 2023, including for high food and fuel prices and rising international interest rates”.
The news is almost certain not to come as a surprise to the region where high food prices and in some territories, the underperformance of the agricultural sector had already cast worrying shadows on the food security status of much of the region, going forward. Food security challenges apart, the IDB is warning in its recent report that threatened high interest rates could have the effect of creating economic slowdowns, or worse outright recessions “in important source markets for exported services and goods from the Caribbean.”
