MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, (JIS) — A professor of economics and international business from the United States says the Caribbean’s best prospect for sustained macro-economic growth lies in deepening levels of financial sector congruity and trade integration.

There are plenty of challenges in this part of the world and a lot needs to be done. A lot of the work will require co-ordination and co-operation [among] the countries in the region. At the end of the day, greater trade and economic integration have to be part of the solution,” said Professor Nouriel Roubini of the New York University (NYU). 

Roubini was addressing the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) High-Level Caribbean Forum at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, in Rose Hall on Friday.

He cited developments in Europe, United States, China and the emerging markets, which he said, could have a major impact on the region’s economies. He said that the Caribbean must come together to prepare for the inevitable “economic head winds”.

“Policies are not just [to be] national policies, but regional policies, with the support, of course, of the international community. That might be one way of dealing with the fundamental problems [such as] vulnerabilities to natural disasters… of being a small country and being subject to economic shocks of one sort or another,” he pointed out.

The two-day forum, staged under the theme: ‘Unlocking Economic Growth’, involved officials from the IMF, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), World Bank, and the Caribbean Development Bank (CBD); and finance ministries and other government officials from Caribbean countries including Jamaica, Antigua-Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, Surinam, and Trinidad and Tobago.