NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Despite global technological advances and industrial developments over the past three decades, Bahamians have only seen $503 more per person in annual income, according to a regional economist.

Marla Dukharan, a Caribbean economist and formerly Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) top regional economics expert, while addressing a recent joint seminar with Citadel Consultants and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), noted that this nation has averaged only 1.1 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the two decades prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is the pace at which our economies are growing throughout this region. This is not unusual. It is the norm in the region,” said Dukharan.

“GDP growth per capita in The Bahamas in 2019 was only 1.3 percent more, or $503 more than it was in 1989. This means that all of the technological advances and industrial developments we have seen globally in the last three decades has only brought The Bahamas $503 more per person in annual income.”

Elsewhere, however, in a recently released analysis of the 2021/2022 fiscal budget, Dukharan noted that this nation is in a dire socioeconomic situation, with two crises hitting back-to-back — namely Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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