Given the particular vulnerability of small Caribbean states, international financial institutions may have to re-examine their mode of classifying those considered as middle income.
Making the recommendation was Deodat Maharaj, deputy secretary-general of the Commonwealth, who met briefly yesterday with Orin Gordon, editor-in-chief of T&T Guardian.
Saying the Commonwealth had a particular interest in the vulnerability of small states, Maharaj said: “What is happening globally, people think with middle income classification, for example, people think it is unimportant but actually it’s quite important.
“The international financial institutions use a very simple measure, largely relying on per capita GDP. So if we rely on per capita GDP there will be countries like T&T, Barbados, Grenada and Antigua which are very vulnerable.
“Take Grenada and Hurricane Ivan where 70 per cent of the homes were damaged and 30 per cent of the homes destroyed...$1 billion in losses equivalent to two years’ GDP. So in one natural disaster you could go from high income to middle income to zero income. So if it is countries have to be classified...that per capita income can’t just be used. We have been advocating to use vulnerability as a criteria as well,” Maharaj urged.
He said his portfolio encompassed a wide range of issues including trade, government policy, debt, debt management, oceans and natural resources, health, and education.
Thirty-one of the Commonwealth’s 53 members are small states.
Maharaj also said that for countries to take ownership of their destinies they must grow their economies but, at the same time, they needed space to do so.