(Trinidad Guardian) The authors argued that since the Caribbean countries are dependent on tourism for anywhere between 20 to 90 percent of GDP and employment, they were the hardest hit.
They admitted that “COVID-19 has hit Latin America and the Caribbean harder than other parts of the world, both in human and economic terms. Pienknagura et al revealed that the relatively large human toll on the region is evident: with only 8.2 percent of the world population, the region had 28 percent of cases and 34 percent of deaths, by the end of September 2020.
The IMF projects a real GDP contraction of 8.1 percent in 2020. Unlike in previous recessions, the IMF added that employment contracted more strongly than GDP in the second quarter of 2020.
