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No. 2022-042
To reduce unemployment, inequality, and poverty
Curaçao and Sint Maarten should adopt an inclusive growth approach
Willemstad/Philipsburg – “It is widely acknowledged that over the past decade several shocks amplified unemployment, inequality, and poverty across the monetary union,” states Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS) president Richard Doornbosch in the Bank’s December 2022 Economic Bulletin. “In particular, the vulnerable groups in society, including the lower educated, youngsters and migrants, were affected by these shocks”, he adds. In a society with high economic and social disparities, opportunities to prosper are not equally distributed and, consequently, the full wealth potential is not achieved. Therefore, Doornbosch recommends that as the economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis takes hold, both Curaçao and Sint Maarten should adopt an inclusive growth approach to not only achieve growth in terms of quantity of goods and services produced, but also tackle unemployment, inequality, and poverty.
The CBCS has recently conducted a study on the effects of inequality on economic growth in small economies. The Economic Bulletin of December includes a feature article with the main findings of this study. Due to a lack of up-to-date figures on inequality in Curaçao and Sint Maarten, the study used data from 43 other small countries that can serve as a proxy for Curaçao and Sint Maarten.