Bajan Bugle: Fitch Issues the Annual Warning, 40 Percent of Mental Health Calls Are from Our Children, and Cohobblopot Returns

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400

Bridgetown morning. The Nation’s Sunday is a mixed bag, as all Sundays in a small state tend to be. Three stories are worth sitting with. Let us sit with them.

Fitch warns, the numbers look familiar

Fitch Ratings has issued its quarterly assessment of Barbados and — with the US-Iran conflict now firmly in the picture — flagged tourism pressures and energy price risks as the main downside factors for 2026. The baseline case assumes minimal fiscal impact: global oil averaging US$70/barrel, stable US and UK tourism demand, and the Government’s mitigation measures (absorbing 50% of electricity price increases, locking imported fuel at US$92/barrel, capping fuel taxes for three months) holding.

Fitch on The Guyana Brief

Bajan Bugle: Fitch Issues the Annual Warning, 40 Percent of Mental Health Calls Are from Our Children, and Cohobblopot Returns

Fitch warns, the numbers look familiar