CDB’s Durant warns: Caribbean economies facing acute vulnerability

Published on September 15, 2025

The Caribbean region’s limited export diversity creates “severe exposure” to external economic turbulence, leaving regional economies with “acute vulnerability” to global shocks, Mr. Ian Durant, Vice President, Corporate Services (Ag) at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), has warned.

Speaking recently at the 2nd Wider Caribbean Regional Risk Conference, Mr. Durant revealed that tourism accounts for more than half of the foreign exchange earnings in five of CDB’s 19 Borrowing Member Countries, with another seven seeing tourism contribute over 30% of their foreign exchange.

The over-dependence presents serious risks given tourism’s highly elastic nature during economic downturns, he argued, advising that “the critical policy imperative is to mitigate these risks.”

The solution, the CDB Vice President argued, lies in improving regional competitiveness to enable export diversification.

He defined competitiveness as the ability of countries to get products to export markets at competitive prices, with required quality standards, and reliable delivery, factors that require robust infrastructure and institutional frameworks.

Mr. Durant highlighted the CARICOM «25 by 25 plus 5» initiative – aimed at reducing food imports by 25% by 2030 (extended from the original 2025 target) – as a practical example of how improved competitiveness could reduce economic vulnerability while potentially creating new export opportunities.