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Fresh off the release of the Central Bank of Barbados’ first-quarter economic assessment, the leader of the island nation’s top private sector advocacy group has outlined a mixed but broadly encouraging outlook for the domestic economy, flagging solid growth and improving fiscal health as key drivers of rising investor confidence, while warning that external and domestic headwinds threaten to undermine long-term progress.

In a public statement issued Wednesday, James Jimmy Clarke, Chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA), noted that the Caribbean island logged another three months of consistent GDP expansion through the end of March, with the Central Bank pegging first-quarter growth at 1.7%. This uptick was fueled primarily by steady activity across the island’s core economic pillars: tourism, construction, business services and other service-related industries. Labour market conditions have also shown measurable improvement alongside this growth, Clarke added.

Clarke emphasized that consecutive quarters of sustained expansion deliver a clear signal of economic stability, a critical metric for drawing and retaining private capital. “Overall, the attainment of successive economic growth of the economy provides further indication of stable economic performance, an important indicator to building investor confidence in the local economy,” he said. “We anticipate that Barbados will maintain its attractiveness to private sector investors.”

The BPSA also praised the island’s ongoing solid fiscal performance, highlighting that the primary surplus for the 2025/2026 financial year hit $647 million – equal to 4% of Barbados’ GDP. Over the same period, the country’s overall fiscal deficit narrowed to just $58.3 million. These improvements have driven a downward shift in Barbados’ debt-to-GDP ratio, which fell 2.7 percentage points to 94.6% by the end of the financial year.

While international reserves dipped slightly compared to the prior reporting period, Clarke confirmed that the buffer remained robust at $3 billion as of the end of March 2026, enough to cover 25.5 weeks of imports, well above standard adequacy thresholds. Contained domestic inflation and continued improving labour metrics further add to the economy’s positive momentum, the BPSA found.

Despite these encouraging gains, Clarke did not downplay the significant challenges still facing the small island nation. External risks including ongoing global geopolitical instability and the cascading impacts of climate change have paired with domestic concerns, most notably rising energy costs and elevated crime rates, to create heightened economic uncertainty. In response to public safety threats, Clarke reaffirmed the private sector’s commitment to collaborating with other national stakeholders to mitigate the social and economic damage of crime and gun violence.

“As we face global geopolitical tensions, rising energy prices, the impacts of climate change, and concomitant social pressures causing higher levels of uncertainty, the private sector hopes for continued national resilience and stable economic performance and growth,” Clarke said.

In a formal ceremony held Wednesday at Barbados’ State House, 33 senior government and financial sector officials received the Caribbean nation’s third-highest civilian honor, capping years of coordinated work to lift the country off two critical international financial watchlists that had threatened its global economic standing. The awardees came from two core working groups: the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Action Plan Implementation Team and the International Business Unit Economic Substance Team. Their collective effort culminated in two landmark delistings that have reshaped Barbados’ reputation as a global financial hub: the island was removed from the FATF’s monitoring-focused grey list in 2024, which triggered an automatic removal from the United Kingdom’s high-risk third country register, and formally taken off the European Union’s blacklist of high-risk non-EU jurisdictions on August 5, 2025. Barbadis President Jeffery Bostic used the ceremony to recognize the years of behind-the-scenes work and sacrifice that made the delistings possible, emphasizing the significance of the honor being conferred. The award granted to the officials is the third-highest distinction in the Order of Barbados, ranking only below the Freedom of Barbados and the Order of the Republic. “I want to offer my sincerest congratulations to you on what I consider to be a very significant achievement,” Bostic told the gathered honourees. “That is something to be very proud of. We all are very proud of what we’ve been able to do and to achieve.” Bostic also extended formal gratitude on behalf of the entire nation for the team’s consistent commitment to public service, noting that their relentless dedication delivered long-term benefits to Barbados’ economy. Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw echoed the president’s praise, highlighting the grueling long hours and meticulous policy changes the teams implemented to meet international regulatory standards. “The country owes you a debt of gratitude for the dedication, the commitment, and I’m sure the long hours of unbroken service and sacrifice that you’ve made,” Bradshaw said. She added that the successful delistings have already delivered tangible economic results, restoring investor confidence and strengthening growth prospects for Barbados’ key international business sector. “It has allowed us to be able to have investors certainly turning their attention back to Barbados,” she noted. Industry and policy observers have widely framed these dual delistings as a transformative milestone for Barbados, which has long positioned itself as a leading offshore international business and financial center. Inclusion on global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing watchlists like the FATF grey list and EU blacklist carries significant economic risks: it can undermine international investor trust, raise transaction costs for cross-border business, damage the overall credibility of a country’s financial regulatory framework, and deter foreign direct investment. Wednesday’s honors ceremony marks a formal national recognition of the critical role these public servants played in protecting Barbados’ economic future and securing its position in the global financial system.

On Wednesday, as Barbados honored the team that steered the country off two major global anti-money laundering risk lists, Senate President Reginald Farley delivered a stark warning: the island nation has just over a year to prove its ongoing compliance with tightened international anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards, or it could be pushed back onto harmful grey and blacklists.

Farley was a core member of the working group that secured Barbados’ removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list and the European Union’s blacklist of high-risk financial jurisdictions, a milestone achieved earlier this year after more than seven years of sweeping regulatory reform. During a national honours ceremony at State House recognizing the efforts of the FATF Action Plan Implementation Team and the International Business Unit Economic Substance Team, he laid out the strict timeline for the upcoming compliance assessment.

“Between now and June next year, we essentially have to prove to the international financial community that we have a system which is compliant with the new arrangements,” Farley told reporters on Wednesday. The delisting achieved earlier this year was the end result of a years-long reform process launched after a 2016–2017 mutual evaluation identified critical gaps in Barbados’ regulatory framework. At that time, FATF issued a formal action plan with binding deadlines for the country to address its deficiencies, a process that dominated the work of financial regulators and government officials for nearly a decade.

Though Barbados has retained its off-list status to date, Farley confirmed that a high-stakes re-evaluation is scheduled for June 2027. Over the coming months, Barbados will first submit a series of detailed written reports to international assessors, before a review team travels to the island for what Farley called the “final test.” During the on-site visit, assessors will interview stakeholders across the private sector, national law enforcement agencies, and top financial regulators. Their mandate: verify that Barbados’ domestic laws, regulatory frameworks, and enforcement mechanisms are robust enough to counter money laundering, block terrorist financing, and stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

“As a member of the international community, one of the requirements is that all countries must show they are not even unwittingly being used as a funnel for money to fund terrorist activity or the spread of weapons of mass destruction,” Farley explained. Against a backdrop of stricter global standards for the fifth round of FATF evaluations, the Senate President stressed that Barbados cannot afford to ease its reform efforts. “We have a responsibility to redouble our efforts to ensure that under the new tightened rules of this next fifth round, we do not find ourselves on any negative listing,” he said.

Back in February of this year, when Barbados secured its delisting, Finance Minister Ryan Straughn called the achievement a major breakthrough after more than seven years of relentless work. He emphasized that the milestone clears the way for Barbados to position itself as a leading, fully compliant international investment hub aligned with all global tax and regulatory standards. “Over the last seven and a half years, the government has worked to address every issue highlighted on the EU black list, working alongside FATF and the OECD,” Straughn said at the time. “We did this because the reputation of Barbados required a complete overhaul, to demonstrate that we are a well-run jurisdiction.”

Leading regional economists echoed that optimism when the delisting was announced. Dr. Don Marshall, director and senior research fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), framed the removal from the lists as a transformative boost to Barbados’ national brand. He noted that the economic benefits of the improved reputation would be felt almost immediately, helping to stabilize existing international businesses operating on the island and attract new foreign direct investment.

For the upcoming assessment, Farley has reaffirmed Barbados’ commitment to meeting all global requirements, pledging that the government will allocate the necessary financial and technical resources, and pass any new legislation needed to preserve international confidence in the country’s financial sector. He also outlined the coordinated governance structure that guides Barbados’ anti-money laundering (AML) efforts: overall responsibility falls to the Office of the Attorney General through the national AML Authority, which works in close coordination with law enforcement, customs, the Barbados Revenue Authority, the Central Bank of Barbados, and the Financial Services Commission via a formal AML Network that holds regular coordination meetings.

“We do have governance structures in place, a coherent strategy, and a national action plan mapping where we are and what we need to deliver to meet our goals by the end of this process in June 2027,” Farley said.