![](https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Corona-Virus-cells.jpg)
Government is doing everything in its power to pull this country through the COVID 19 crisis.
This was asserted today by Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM, David Comissiong, during an interview with the Barbados Government Information Service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Culloden Road.
Ambassador Comissiong explained that Barbados and other CARICOM countries were now facing a burgeoning debt crisis as a direct consequence of COVID-19, since it was both a public health disaster and an economic crisis.
He noted that it had also created a social crisis, since diverse masses of persons were affected in different ways.
He said: “Government made [it] clear that it is going to do everything possible to make sure that every single Barbadian gets through this crisis safely, [and] that no one falls through the cracks. And they said that since the tourism sector has collapsed [and] we are no longer bringing in [large quantities of] foreign exchange, that the national strategy is going to be for Government to stimulate the local economy by providing programmes and resources to Barbadian people and enterprises.”
He noted that the Inter-American Development Bank had indicated that Barbados’ gross domestic product was going to decline by 11.6 per cent this year and the European Union seemed determined to destroy this country’s financial business industry through blacklisting.