Yacht show
The Charter Yacht Society of the BVI plans to host more than 70 yachts at Village Cay Marina on Tuesday for the 30th Annual BVI Charter Yacht Show. The four-day event will allow several dozen yacht brokers the chance to meet crews and other industry participants, according to the organisation’s website.
Bahamas
A credit rating agency lowered the Bahamian government’s credit rating last week, a move the government claimed was due to a change in the way the agency calculates the rating. Standard and Poor’s lowered the country’s credit rating from BBB+/A2 to BBB/A3 because the new methodology will allow the organisation to place more emphasis on a country’s “diversification and growth prospects,” according to a Bahamanian government press release. “Given the Bahamas’ economic concentration on tourism and financial services for more than 50 years and given its limited growth prospects in the current challenging global economic environment, it seemed likely that a rating downgrade would follow this change in methodology,” the release stated.
Belize
The Belizian economy has weathered the financial crisis better than other Caribbean economies due to its macroeconomic management, according to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF reported that the country’s gross domestic product expanded by 2.7 percent in 2010 due to the electricity, wholesale and retail sectors. In 2011, the country’s economy is expected to expand by 2.5 percent. Although the IMF believes that Belize’s economic outlook is “moderately positive,” the country’s banking sector remains weak, with a high number of non-performing loans, according to the IMF.