BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Friday cautioned that great uncertainty looms for regional economies and called on Caribbean governments to redouble their efforts to reduce spiralling debt.

The region’s premier financial institution said Caribbean economies for the most part failed to find their economic footing in 2012 and not much is expected to change this year.

But it predicted that growth in the region is expected to be positive for the most part with Guyana leading the way with real gross domestic product (GDP) projected at around five per cent.

“Much of this activity is expected to be generated from stepped up public sector investment and from gains in the agriculture sector. Haiti is also expected to register strong growth on account of reconstruction efforts, together with improvements from gains in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors.”

But the region’s premier financial institution said that growth in most of the nine-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is “projected at a modest -moderate 1-2 per cent, reflecting ongoing efforts at fiscal consolidation.

“Marginal growth of less than one per cent is projected for Barbados on the basis of an uptick in tourism based on anticipated growth in major markets,” the CDEB said, noting that in Jamaica, output could be boosted by the outcome of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Stand By Agreement “which has the potential to release resources from other multilaterals in support of a transformative capital investment programme.

“In the Overseas Territories growth is also expected to be positive based on the projected sustained recovery in offshore business activity with a pickup in leisure activity in 2013,” the bank said.