 Prime Minister Hon. Philip J. Pierre, Commissioner of Police Mr. Milton Daisy, staff of the GIS, members of the media, St. Lucian's, good morning. It is my pleasure to welcome you to a press conference with the Hon. Prime Minister and the Commissioner of Police as we speak about citizen security in St. Lucia. We are aware of some of the alarming reports of late and the Prime Minister and the Commissioner of Police is here to answer questions from the media, which we know that the public is interested in hearing. So I will hand over to my colleagues to ask any questions in terms of citizen security that they believe is newsworthy and also that St. Lucian's are interested in knowing answers to. So colleagues over to you. No questions. There's Mike. Good morning. Re-Antony is a voice publishing newspaper. Mike, question I guess to the Commissioner of Police. Are there any immediate measures the government plans to take to hold gun violence in the country? Yes. There are measures in place to do that. It's not just now. We have measures in place to put gun violence in the country, especially down. I know that the gun violence is more prevalent, I would say, in the south now. And that is what the price is. What we have done so far is to go in there. We have collaborated with some of the social groups, the non-government organizations. We have met with some of the persons out there. We have met with leaders and so on. With a view of having persons mediate and to quell the situation. These are some of the things. And also on the other part, police, we have conducted police operations. In viewfort, we have frequent patrols. We have increased our patrols by means of bicycles. This is something that we never had in viewfort. Six bicycles were sent to viewfort where they go into the immediate community to identify issues and so on and to report back to the station. Thank you for your question. Sheffield Gelad from Loop News. My question is for you, Mr PM. What would you like to see to the families of the islands nearly 35 million victims right now? Well, first of all, I just want to make it clear that I, like most other citizens of the country, not very happy, very concerned about the crime situation. There seems to be a provision of crime throughout the region, which we feel is intellectual. Only this morning in Barbados, there was a double murder. In Jamaica last week, there was a murder of an entire family. Trinidad, there seems to be something happening that has caused an escalation of murders in the region. That doesn't mean that we are good in Saint Lucia or we have to sit back and relax and see what's happening in Saint Lucia. We will just leave it because it's happening. There seems to be some things happening. There are all these murders in the U.S. where scores of people are killed. So there seems to be something that's happening, which is very negative. Having said so, we are very concerned and we understand that the people of Saint Lucia have to be concerned. We have nothing against people expressing their concern and even their outrage about what's happening in the crime situation. And I too, I am outraged. And this is why we are working with the members of the police service to see what we can do to alleviate that situation. To answer your moderate question, all I can do is wish them, the families, my sincere condolences, my sympathies. It's not good to lose anybody. Jeff is nothing nice. And for those who have died, I am very sorry. But we need to find the deeper reason. It's not something that we can just deal with on the surface. You know, what's happening in the crime situation is concerning and the government is concerned. And we've been the resources that are available to us. We are trying our best. But the situation is not good. And I will be the first person to tell you it needs to change when we try. Thank you, Prime Minister. I'm here. Okay. With the current situation, crime-related case in the island, will the RSS be asked to intervene, probably come down to St. Lucia to help alleviate that situation? Yes. I've had discussions with the commissioner. He also spoke to the commandant in the RSS. And we are bringing RSS troops into St. Lucia to assist the members of the Royal St. Lucia Police Service. They should be here sometime in July. And the fact is, yes, after consultation with the high command of the police force, we are causing some RSS officers to be in St. Lucia. Yes. Let's go down. Okay. Mr. Commissioner, that question is for you. $40,000 a month for two K-9s as part of the K-9 unit. Was that money well spent? I could tell you what the K-9 at the time that the K-9 unit was in existence. What are the records? We attended 47 operations with 63% success. And that success included firearms and drugs and also cash. We had over $40,000 in just one operation being recovered by the unit. We also had nine firearms recovered by the unit and also an amount of drugs being recovered in that. So at the time, the K-9 unit, putting out the cost of it, the K-9 unit, I think it is one of the, I would say, the tools needed, especially now, with everything that's going on to have in the Royal St. Lucia Police Force. Actually, the K-9 we had were able to detect large sums of cash, drugs, and firearms. What's the status of the unit right now, as we speak? From my understanding that this unit is, we are waiting for a renewal of probably its contract, but I don't know because it's not within my power to renew. It was not the contract was not with, between the force and the unit. The unit was given to us also customs and financial investigations agency. It was open to them to use. But in terms of, I believe that we need a unit in the Royal St. Lucia Police Force because it assists. Mr PM, can you shed some light on that? On the dogs? Yeah, in terms of the renewal of the contract. Okay, I mean, I know there's a, we need some level of excitement in the country. I mean, things after COVID, there's need for, and the press is very happy to dive in. I understand that, you know, I understand. You know, I might tell you something, you know, some time ago, I was also, I was a reporter, you know that. In some time, my life, I worked with the press. So I understand the excitement of the press, you know that. I think that, let me just think about this, you know, and I hope as this interview continues, I can be able to dispel some of the myths and the lies that are peddling in St. Lucia. Real lies. And I'm very happy to dispel some of it. I have an agreement in my hand, right? The K9 unit started in April 2021. Okay, it was an agreement for the provision of dogs and dog handlers. That was in April 2021. It continued and it was, it had to be renewed on a yearly basis, right? We continued. The government, the government of my, our government continued with the process. But right now, every cent we spend, we have to send it and look carefully at it. We must not take anything in silos. This government, right now, we have to subsidize gasoline for the public of St. Lucia by nearly a million dollars. We subsidize flour. We subsidize cooking gas. Never before has any government had to subsidize food stuff as we have to subsidize it. We receive no revenue from fuel, absolutely no revenue. I have a report on my desk right now from the Ministry of Finance to increase the price of fuel. First to make zero sense. To increase it to make zero sense. This is under consideration in my desk now. All the, the, the, the profits and the pseudo economies. I needed to tell me, give me a solution to the crisis of revenue, to the crisis in the future, crisis of the supply chain, to the crisis of food in the world. If the solutions were available in the world, there would be absolutely no, no discussion. Inflation right now is at its highest for 40 years in the United States. Inflation. Fuel prices are at the highest. There is no one in St. Lucia, regardless of whether they are geniuses in finance, could tell me the solution to the issues that we have now, except the fact that the government must tighten its belts and the government must be prudent and the government must look to solve its, the, the greatest priorities. The last government increased the fuel tax by $1.50, ostensibly to pay for the fixing of roads, the roads that they build by direct order. Right now, these roads have to be paid and we get zero, zero for excise tax. I need the minister of finance to tell me how will we pay the debt that he incurred by direct award with no tendering for the construction of roads that he said would have been paid from the money from the excise tax. I need to get the answer for that. How will that revenue be raised? So you want to ask me about dogs, but I know what's excited is dogs now. The, the, the agreement for the, the dogs was, it's correct. The deputy prime minister says it's correct. It's $40,000 a month. The agreement was sent to us, but we have to be prudent. We've not signed it. You haven't said we will not sign it. We are, is under consideration. It's a very simple situation. We had to make the choice. We had to make a choice. I'll tell you something. We've had to have an entire cabinet meeting to discuss the price of bread. This is, this is a reality. This is where the situation, no government has ever had the crisis that we face. Even in COVID times, the government made revenue from fuel. Even during COVID times, at the height of COVID, the government would revenue from fuel. Now we're not, we're not making one cent from fuel. So I am, I'm very, very content about situation, but I know the government is trying its best. And I defy any talk show host or any economist or any so-called, so-called competent ex minister finance to tell me how, how would improve that, that, that, that situation. So the answer to you or your dog question is that it's under consideration. The agreement is here and it's under consideration. Thank you. Mr. Daisy, is there a need for another operation to fight crime? No, we have continuously, we have operations that Intel driven and so on. It's, it's not, it's not reinventing the wheel. We would have new ideas, new strategies in place, but we continuously have operations to fight crime. Okay. And chef, we'll feed the mic to someone else with a question. Anyone else? Karim Nelson from What's Seven. Mr. Daisy, earlier in the week, you mentioned that lack of funding challenges the growth of the witness protection program, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. What money is from the criminal proceeds act supposed to fund the witness protection program? No, actually from the proceeds of crime act it's supposed to support law enforcement and law enforcement is actually, you have customs contributing to it, you have FIA contributed, you have the police contributing to it and we have resources, other resources are needed. For example, we receive some vehicles. We are constantly receiving resources, but the PM has just explained his constraints with finances. So when it comes to witness protection and it is not just simple, it may be one witness, but it spreads to an entire family or friends with that witness. You may have one witness, but he has a wife or she has a husband, they have a partner, they have children and then you cannot protect this individual and don't protect the others. So it is just a witness protection is a program of activities that you must have sufficient funding for. Okay. So on this segment with Commissioner and Prime Minister, we'll take two more questions and then we'll move to our next topic. Again, earlier this week you mentioned that the police can only work within their means. So my question to you would be, what are some of the major challenges affecting the police force in arresting crime on Allen? Because I think it's something the public is putting pressure that the police isn't doing enough, isn't doing enough, but can you at least shed some light on what are some of the challenges? Our main challenge is in terms of manpower. We may say that we have 1,300 officers over the island, but when you do the maths, it's how many officers are available on a daily basis because you have shifts of officers and not machines, not robots. You work an eight-hour shift so you would see that you are dividing your numbers by three. And then you have to cater for days off, you have to cater for a vacation and so on and all other types of leave. So in essence to cover and day by day we see the activities of the police increasing, what we have to respond to. So you would see the need for more officers. If we had more officers, we would be able to flood every community with officers so that they are present all the time, but we cannot do that. So we have to prioritize, we have to look at what are our urgent needs and then to try to fulfill those needs. So that is the first thing that we are looking for. And also there are things in technology. I know we are receiving gradually, but technology now to fight crime, that is something that is very important. Thank you, Commissioner. And last question, we'll go to Miss Taliam. Good morning, Kiba Taliam, NBC. The question is for Miss Taliam. Any arrests been made with regard to the gun violence which would have been witnessed in broad daylight in 34? Yes, we have had some arrests. And actually in terms of the homicides that we've had on Island, I think it is 43 recorded homicides on Island, we have six of them being solved and within, which suspects have been identified and within forensic results to charge. We have four, in four cases, persons have been charged and on remand for those offenses. And we also recorded four police shootings. So in those four police shootings, three of them have been recommended for an inquest. And there is one matter. This is the one in Viewfort with the young school, young students. This matter is we are within advice from the DPP as to the way forward with this particular one. So we are working on all of them. It takes some, sometimes the time might be lengthy, some of them it would do it right away. And that is with evidence, what evidence you have. Did eyewitnesses come forward? Did you get a quick match or something of forensic evidence? So all these things take time. Thank you, Commissioner. And thank you to the members of the media. Prime Minister, do you have any closing remarks for this segmental and citizen security? Yeah, just to assure the public or the government, like all citizens, we are concerned. We are concerned about the crime situation. Our safety, as a people, cannot be compromised. But with the best will in the world, we have to be able to back it up with resources. You're trying? I am in the process of signing an agreement that would give the police service 14 new vehicles. The training vote that was stopped by the last government, the training vote that was stopped by the last government, the training vote that was stopped by the last government has been reinstated this year. With $200,000, it could be more than what we have now. We have started a swift justice program. We have put in $2 million in the budget to reduce on the backlog of cases that exist in the system. You heard that there are a number of cases, particularly murder cases that are stuck in the system. We have put in $2 million in what we call a swift justice program. In terms of conditions for the police, we are starting construction on the grossly police station. In terms of conditions for the police, the viewfold police station, you must understand that the problem at the viewfold police station in its initial stages would have cost the solution taxpayer just over $100,000, or let's be fair and see between $120,000. It was left to fester. It was left to fester for years. Without the government at the time, spending $100,000 and there was no fuel prices, no fuel prices, there was still revenue from fuel. They allow it to fester and now it's going to cost us over $2 million to repair the viewfold police headquarters. We are doing that. In the budget this year, there is money to repair police stations. We are looking into the possibility of drones for the police service. We are trying and we're starting by, as I said, bringing in the RSS to help, but we see if we can increase the numbers in the force. We are trying to boost the morale of the members of the police service. I've met with the welfare and we are discussing plans to stop some of the problems, or to limit some of the problems that exist. So we are trying. I've said to you before that my biggest concern is the security of the country, the economy of the country and I have a vested interest and I know some people get annoyed when I say that they say I've seen enough, but I have a vested interest because I went to school on the money of a police officer. So I have a vested interest in the welfare of the police men and women. So I can assure the public of Senusia that the government, within the resources that are available to us, we are leaving no stone unturned to see if we can alleviate the situation of crime in the country. But it is a concern and I agree that people are concerned about it. Thank you Prime Minister. And just to close by saying that crime and citizen security is all of our responsibility and it is citizens who are committing crime and the public is again encouraged to assist the police in their efforts too for information gathering and also in the tampering of crime scenes, etc. So we too as citizens have a responsibility for our welfare and security. Thank you Commissioner Daisy and thank you Prime Minister for this session. Commissioner, are you free to go? A precious reminder of experience. Welcome back everyone. Commissioner, I will let you have some closing remarks to St Lucia and to our media colleagues. Yes. Actually sometime last week we heard of an anti-gang unit and persons are asking what is, what really is an anti-gang unit. Actually the aim of an anti-gang unit and in fact the one we want to introduce to St Lucia is to dismantle any existing gangs or criminal groups in St Lucia. And by doing this it is getting the, we would need to get the intelligence in terms of their networks. For example, I could give you the, for the gun coming in to the St Lucia. We do not manufacture guns so you could safely say that the guns are coming from the outside and coming in. Whether it is through the illegal parts or the legal parts. So we have to find the information especially through the legal parts where you are trying to dismantle the network because it has to do with networking with the, firstly with the supplier. Then you have the shipper. Then if it is coming through the legal means, at customs because that is the place where that is the border, we have customs. So we have to get the information as to how those firearms are coming in so that you could break it. It is sometimes most likely that during the process, during that supply chain, whether it is a courier, whoever customs the brokers, the shippers, somebody or more than one of those channels, there are corrupt practices in there. So we need to identify that. And once you could break one of those channels, then we believe we can safely dismantle the guns. And one of the most crucial parts of the anti-gun unit is our FIA, the financial investigative authority where they would be going at the assets of those persons who are committing the crime. Because crime persons commit crime for profit. And once you are going after the profit, you have dismantled the gun. They would not have the funding required. And also the assistance that they get whether it be through the law enforcement and so on, once you could identify them. And that is one thing that I will not tolerate. In fact, I'm not tolerating in the force. It is corruption. And I know commissioners before me they would tell you the same thing. Could give you just in May an officer was dismissed for corrupt practice. And this is, once we have the evidence, we have persons saying police are corrupt. But once we must have the information to act upon it. And once you are going to give information to a criminal gun, I believe you are a criminal and then you don't deserve to be in the Royal Central Police Force. And a person's officers have come crying. I could understand if a mistake is made. But not for assisting criminals because you are one like them. And then you would be dismissed immediately. Yeah, for that. In the same vein, I want to commend the officers who are out there who are doing their best, especially the SSU have to respond ever so often when gunshots are fired and so on. You leave your, sometimes I have to take officers who are off. Ask them to leave home midnight or whatever time to be in certain locations. So I want to commend these officers. The officers from CRB who are on the ground, especially in view for trying to reach the troubled persons. We know that sometimes the crime it does not affect you personally, but persons fear that at what point it would reach my doorsteps. We have guns being fired all over. At what time a stray bullet would hit an elderly person. You have children who cannot sleep because when they go out they have nightmares hearing guns firing at them. So these are some of the things that I applaud the officers who are going into the community to do that, the beaten patrol officers who are always present. So just asking the public, I know everybody. We are here in the crime. It is time now for you to act, but it would not take one day to do it. I'm calling upon the social services to continue doing what they are doing and more to come in so that they could address the situation in the islands. Crime is not just what we see. We see guns being fired, but there are deeper problems. Then that we need to get down into those problems. We have bringing problems. We have problems of ill discipline. So we need to correct that so that we could see that change. And I may even go further to say that we have a problem with parenting in St. Lucia where parents do not give the proper guidance to persons or there would be parents who want to give the proper guidance, but these kids would go out there and then get influenced by other persons. We've had instances where school children are being sponsored by these same criminals. So they lure them into doing whatever they are doing. I go to school and then spend eight hours on a bench when I could get my sneaker and whether it's your Nike to go to work. So all these things are issues that we need to take care of so that we could see a change in St. Lucia. However, we, the police, we are committed into doing it and I know that the government, the prime minister is consulting with me and consulting with him all the time and then what other resources needed. And he mentioned the vehicles. I know that is one of the things that would help us a great deal. Thanks. Thank you, Commissioner. And again, thank you everyone for being with us for this segment of our press conference. We'll take a break and when we come back we will move on to our economic outlook discussion. This is where the COVID-19 pandemic happened. It was a movement. It was a fast-paced movement. Everyone was running for public relations. They were talking about a public place that was full of basic, tiboutic, changed social distances, six-way, regional. They were talking about the COVID-19 pandemic. They were talking about the quarantine. They were talking about the contact and the people who were exposed to the virus. They were talking about the free one-on-one and the public clinic. They were talking about the supermarket, the pharmacy, the ATM, the access service. They were talking about the health care and the health care. They were talking about the health care and the health care. We are all saving the COVID-19 pandemic. We are all living in the same place. We are all living in the same place. What's in the food you're eating? Do you really even know all the chemicals and hormones used to accelerate their growth? All the artificial flavoring sweeteners and colors, too. We consume and we don't spare a thought for the damage that they'll do. Think about the children children think about the children how will we save it chemicals and GMO's are not the solution use organic and join excessive agrochemical use additives and genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment join the good food revolution grow buy and consume organic a message from rise st. Lucia and the ministry of sustainable development with funding from the GEF small grants program UNDP and welcome back to our press conference this time we have prime minister honorable philip jp and also miss jemma lafihi the director in the department of research and policy um so we will speak about who will take any questions regarding economic outlook so that entails inflation gas prices supply chain issues um that you can that the director can speak directly to and um also prime minister in terms of how that will these issues affect the revenue of the country and also our ability to spend on social activities on health and any other issues of the country so i would hand over to my media colleagues again questions anyone or should i start the ball no if no one has questions we can go home oh wow no question okay so we'll have a little conversation miss lafihi and prime minister we've seen the increase in um gas prices probably over the last three um well not three weeks three terms because we know we do a pass through mechanism every three weeks right um what has caused that because we see government making zero dollars but yet still we're being asked to pay for uh pay more money for gasoline and could you just explain two solutions what the process well the process behind that is hi good morning everyone um i would just basically outline quickly so for the benefit of the the audience exactly how the fuel price that determines the leisure so there is a price build-up formula that is applied to every shipment of every of goods coming into the leisure and we see that that price build-up formula um determines the retail price it comprises three main elements which are essentially the important price which is the cif price of the product the margins have been paid to the wholesalers and the retailers which is the gas stations and salt and rubis example and also the government's taxes the government collects two taxes excise tax and customs service charge so the retail prices are largely to a very large extent influenced by the imported price of fuel and what we've seen over the last few months is that the important cif price has increased significantly now that was that itself has been driven by two separate factors we observe for instance that the crude or international prices have been increasing by about 60 odd percent in 2022 compared to 2021 last year and while some may actually regard and basically compare the 2022 crude oil prices with the previous oil price shock in 2008 where the price actually peaked at 140 dollars a barrel there is another fact that play here so quite a part for in addition to the increase in international prices we have a significant and astronomical increase in the refinery cost of the crude oil to convert it to gasoline diesel and cooking gas so when we add these two factors together the crude oil price increase as well as the added refinery cost which has escalated during the course of this year we see that the cif landed cost in san lusia has actually gone up significantly so that has filtered through to our domestic prices and of course there's three reiterated here that the margins that have been paid to solan rubis which is the wholesaler importer margin remains fixed since 2005 there about 2009 sorry there about and the retail margin paid to the gas stations is also fixed so the only variable or the government's policy tool in trying to basically manage and provide relief to the customers is ready to the excise tax that the government collects on fuel so while the government collects a small custom service charge as is for every other import which amounts to about six percent of the cif value the government has adjusted its excise tax downward in a very significant way to the extent that it has even gone negative in some periods so what we see happening is that currently as of June 13th 2022 we see that the excise tax on gasoline which is the main revenue generating item for the government and the main consumption product of the of the four main products it's really has actually negative is 44 cents but what but it's not exactly a full subsidy on the gas and just to make that clear because the government collects about 92 cents on the custom service charge so overall the tax take is positive but it has been significantly reduced compared to previous period just to basically put the context of the excise excise tax we've seen that for the previous three fiscal years the excise tax has moved from roughly about four dollars and fifty cents in the year prior to covid and it's actually gone down a bit the year after that so what we actually have seen in this fiscal year so far is that the excise tax raised on average while we've had some positives and some negative rates it has actually averaged about 42 cents a gallon so the government's tax take in terms of dollar value or revenue that the customs general collects from solid rubies from the gas sales has gone down significantly to the point that an excise tax on gasoline so there's always been just to basically break it down a bit to basically give you a full picture of how the entire fuel mechanism works so I've just spoken about the gasoline and a similar situation happened with diesel but the biggest the biggest relief that the government actually has been given is really with the LPG cooking gas so the government has always been subsidizing cooking gas but the extent of the subsidy has more than doubled or to some extent tripled over the last 12 months so you as you might be aware the subsidy on LPG the 20 pound cylinder amounts to roughly about 26 dollars per per cylinder and a similar amount for the 22 pound cylinder and what we've been seeing in recent weeks is that whatever positive revenue the government collects from gas and diesel it is not sufficient now to basically pay off or to basically cover the cost of the subsidy on the cooking gas so the government has found itself in the position where for the first time since the market pastry was introduced in 2009 where the government has to basically now find the cash to refund the imported solid rubies to basically actually continue to actually sell the product to the consumer I will stop here for now it's a bit of a mouthful but in essence just to wrap it up to say that the the price that we see at the at the pump although very very high by historical levels is significant is really reflecting the external vagaries in the international market and we have no control over we simply price takers in the world market and we're all all consuming public country so the government has tried to provide relief for years for since from since June 2021 last year till about March of 2021 of this year the government kept the prices stable to basically to shield consumers from the rising price that actually started back then but when the war broke out in Ukraine the government wasn't able to continue to basically provide to cover that sort of shield to that extent and there were incremental increases but yet still despite these increases in the retail prices the government's tax has gone down significantly to negligible amounts and in some cases to negative revenue okay and just one question from that I see we have a question from a reporter what is the difference so I know that would have been a projection for we're in the first quarter we've just we're now in the second quarter what was the revenue projection and what did the government actually make right you could tell me so if I would take it a bit more maybe to respond in more on the fiscal year basis overall okay so for instance for this new budget year implicit in the government's approved budget estimates was a projection for from excise tax revenue on all of your products of about 65 65 million dollars for the entire year if we're based on the actual what has happened so far for the fiscal year and should international oil prices remain at the current levels with no adjustment to the retail prices we are expecting to actually be in a situation where the government will be having a net negative revenue collection of about nine million dollars but to get back to your question Monty the government has to so far for the from April to to present subsidized cooking gas quite significantly so it's you know about close to five million dollars on average about one point one million dollars every three week period for the subsidy and there's been a very negligible collection on the tax revenue on gas and diesel which has been close to zero um for for the most part for the fiscal year so far thank you miss baffi kareem we'll take your question yeah kareem nelson odd seven um crude oil products um are rising the prices are rising exponentially um just for an example um january seven teams just of this year a 20 pound cylinder was thirty two dollars and ninety four cents um as of the latest update it's about forty three dollars and seventy eight cents um prime minister you have lamented that government makes low revenue on on fuel um how much longer can we continue to subsidize fuel if it continues to rise um based on the trends that we're seeing prime minister i mean as economists well i'm sure you'll have two different responses i mean the economists would tell me what would tell me what a question that is based in in the science of economics right so i won't tell you that um well really it's a challenge it's a fiscal challenge and and this is why i said previously we have to look at our priorities the government has to look at its priorities the first the first answer will be borrowing right we we also have issues as far as borrowing is concerned our debt to gdp ratio is bordering in the nineties i mean it's not at the situation of chaos yet because some of our neighbors are the hundred laws but on this current trajectory it's it's not looking good our other in our other concern would be revenue from tourism up to this day we've not reached the 2019 tourism figures as yet our even tourism has not reached the 2019 2020 the source would be from the citizens by investment program the cip and as you know that program is on the tremendous stress from europeans on the tremendous stress so we cannot project too deeply into the future as far as the cips control but but the important factor is we do not know how long the war in european will continue we have no idea we do not know how long this will continue so we cannot so we have to measure our responses right now we have an issue with with with flour last month we subsidized flour we sold flour to the the bakers at a cost of i think $35 per bag and landed costs for flour was over a hundred dollars but the government had to actually subsidize in terms of cash into the system so that we could keep bread at its present price what will happen moving forward the same thing we are in negotiations with the bakers for so so the answer to your question is we really cannot predict the future because it's so volatile we do not know what we're having how we're loving so but we are measuring and then we are keeping our priorities we are ensuring that our priorities are kept to a level where the people will benefit not to sign the fact that we have to continue to pay our debt because if we default on our debt payments that's bad for the economy general any other questions or should i continue continue okay wow i have a question on terms of the economic outlook for signature prime minister given the issues at hand and we know again we see in the uk we have reports of consumers adjusting their purchasing habits we've seen the the united states a similar issue arising because of the inflation and we know signature has a lot of imported inflation so what is that what are some of the policies of the government and also what is your message to the citizenry in terms of the escalating food prices going on globally first of all i'd like to have this laughy to speak about inflation as an economist explain inflation prime minister you an economist can you just explain this laughy inflation the what is inflation important inflation and stagflation if you do that then i can come after you so you will you will be explained it from a strictly scientific point of view as an economist right so inflation really is the increase that what we call inflation is really what we term consumer price inflation and what you observe is what you call headline inflation i'm not sure if you're aware of those terms but it really is just a measurement of the change in the price level on average that has been measured by the consumer price index from period to period and so basically you and so inflation rate really is the the change the percentage change in that the cpi consumer price index from one period to the next now the consumer price index is measured as is any other economic statistics and of course there are some issues with all measurements but it really is based on a household but it's a data that's been done by the the central city's office where the there's a basket of goods that actually been deemed to be what is an average use for consumers in san lusia and then that the pricing of those items in that basket have been monitored through every month and then that basically generates the data for exactly that tells you or give you a measurement or a sense as to exactly how consumer price is actually moving of course in that same basket you have some things that are more heavily weighted based on people's spending as a ratio of their total income on those so for instance in our consumer price index we have food being the most heavily weighted index means that the average person in san lusia actually spends a lot more on food than any other products also we will have other key items like for instance some energy products like electricity housing fewer products that we that have been purchased as well as transport so these are some of the more heavily wanted indices that actually pretend to move a lot more with the imported inflation so being a country that is not but that is realized heavily on imports we quite an open small economy a lot of what the purchases of imports from outside of san lusia come with prices which move in line with what happens outside of san lusia so that's what we basically who term imported inflation so an important this goes into san lusia the consumers here are basically faced with the factors that actually influence those those prices in the current environment in a negative manner so that's pretty much exactly what is what inflation really is it's just basically saying that on average that the consumer price level or the people put this ability to basically buy the same basket of goods for some years ago to today has actually moved and has increased regarding stagflation so typically when you have a mix of high inflation as we have now and it has a dampening effect on global global growth or growth in any economy we say in economic terms that that is a situation of stagflation so currently i think someone raised the issue before about the luminary recession in the world so we see now there's been a lot of debates a lot of talk or expectations that perhaps that advanced economies like the us which is our major trading partner is heading towards a recession some think that it's it's not likely it's likely over the next 12 months but others think that if there's timely interventions by those countries that that could we could avoid a situation where we have stagflation but nonetheless having said that we are in an environment where having suffered the effects of covid in 2020-21 and being faced again with this other shock which is a price shock which has been triggered exacerbated by the russian invasion of well the the war in ukraine we that has had untold damage to prices so we've seen that um producers of a lot of well ukraine been a heavy producer of reeds and some of the critical products that are used by the world and also russia been a heavy very major producer of oil that these two factors combined have generated an an somewhat not unprecedented but a very unusual situation which we have not seen in the last four decades um so prices globally has just risen astronomically and consumers are pretty much trying to grapple with um face those prices um so we as a small open economy and um uh we've faced with very very high inflation in san lucha we are looking at um inflation rates just about five to six percent for this year and that's just put in the historical context we had periods where we had deflation which is a negative change um in the price level a few years ago and um we've seen that with the um with the war that this plunged us along with all other countries in the region and by extension the world um into a very high inflation environment okay minister yeah and if i can just add what's so my what i want to tell you is what the government is doing you heard miss laffey speak about the cpi and the and the basket of goods government has these goods most of them are on the price control in that the the price the whole salary tail price is moined by the government including in that price was a six percent service charge on these goods what the government has done is the government is losing further revenue by removing that six percent on these goods so what that would mean is that the new imports would be six percent more if the government had not removed this in the charge so even if the price goes up because as miss laffey spoke about spoke because the price of the import went up because the government has removed the six percent anything you pay for it it would have been six percent more if the government had not intervened that is as far as these basic control goods are concerned so anything you buy now in terms of not everything in terms of the goods that are on the price control you would have been paying six percent more if the government had not intervened that's primus i also want to say but because of inflation and the varying in prices so rapidly um outside of st lusia it doesn't necessarily mean that the goods might be cheaper you know but you would have been paying six percent more yes okay that's important so the consumer would have been shielded to some extent by six percent of course the government doesn't control much of the the price that consumers face but within its um its ability to actually do that the government basically pretty much uses its tax its tax policy to basically adjust it um and basically suffer the revenue loss which would mean its um higher deficits for the government higher debt but at the same time it's trying to basically counterbalance those conflicting objectives of generating sufficient revenue to basically bring down our deficits and our debt levels and at the same time basically providing consumers with as affordable as possible prices to basically minimize the adverse effects of these shocks on them um just as an example for instance um if the government had not intervened in the in the in the um in the fewer prices st lusia as of now would have been facing much higher prices as we see in san kitts in barbadas and even anguilla um which the retail price of gasoline for instance hovers around between 18 to 20 dollars a gallon and yet but we're still at 1795 um so again the consumer would have faced a lot higher prices had the government not decided to basically reduce the excise tax take and basically go into negative territory to subsidize um to some extent some of the products okay and then also our vat rates something that we haven't we recently have forgotten our vat rate is the lowest in the entire region right yes it's the lowest some countries pay 17 and a half percent vat somebody i think something you pay 21 percent vat i'm not sure about that but we pay 12 and a half percent so it's a double army so we're losing revenue on from from it from from our excise tax and our vat rate is lower than anywhere else in in in the region and further we have the most exempt exempt goods again as far as vat is concerned so whereas there are many exempt and zero written goods such that in most of our our our countries our neighboring countries there are very few exempt in some countries there are zero exempt goods from that so it just shows the the the peril we face as far as revenue is concerned plus our high debt and our short term debt and the the debt we have for for the roads over 200 million dollars worth of road debt is short term debt high interest short term debt we that debt is has to be paid in five years normally debt of that nature is repeated in 20 years now but we have to pay these debts in five years plus the fact we have payables that stand now at about 100 million dollars at some point there's about 150 million dollars and these payables add you to local suppliers we have to pay the locals we have to pay them so that they can you can you can generate economic activity in the country so we are caught with that and this and these are not these are not our making we were not the ones who incurred that short term debt at five and a half percent over five years we were not the ones who have incurred it but we have to pay it and the revenue to pay it should have come from the one dollar and fifty cents increase in excise tax that's where that revenue should have come to pay these debts we have not got that that revenue but we have to find the money to pay these short term election roads okay Prime Minister my last question to you and then I guess Ms Lafay could have some closing words and so will you um there must be some good news some good things happening in St Lucia I know the economic outlook seems a little dreary and again as you have stressed not to any not by any of our making but anything that solutions can look forward to in terms of investment opportunities and we know you've been on some recent trips and there's been a heavy focus on green financing and climate change resilience and adaptation um can you speak to any of um projects in the pipeline for St Lucia yeah but first of all let me speak about let me tell you something about what is of great concern what's a great concern is climate change it's a it's a phenomenon that is hitting the world because of the carbon emissions because of what's happening and the sad thing is that the countries that are most heavily affected are not the greatest carbon emitters um but we we are paying for it and and every time I spoke whether it was at the summit of the americas or at the column here's a government conference I spoke about the effect of climate change on St Lucia and effect of climate change in on the region and I made the point that although the world hears about is when they are they are big hurricanes and hurricanes etc but every day and and and and the significance why is that we're saying that we are having floods in castries when rain falls we have landslides we have floods and then we have to repair we have to adapt we have to mitigate causing further strain on our fiscal budget the rains that that that fell yesterday I'm sure there are parts in the country where we have to do some some mitigation causing so climate change is a serious issue and I really hope that the press and the pillow solution can can inform people as to the reality of climate change in the negotiations for our loans now we have to put in a climate a climate clause to mitigate against what's happening there's there's talk about the vulnerability index where because of our national income we are greeted as a middle income country and the reality is we are not because we are highly indebted the there's work there's work happening now to see whether we can convince the IMF and the World Bank and the National Financial Institutions to to treat us give us special and differential treatment as far as our loans are concerned these are the negotiations that that are happening these are the discussions we had we had in the US discussions we had with President Biden discussions we had at the at the HESA government conference and this week I go to Suriname where these discussions will continue so these are the realities that we face realities of climate change the realities of high debt and the realities of crime that is booked available but there is some good news for the first time it's a new ship for a long while we've started we've seen the start of hotel projects and I'm very pleased to tell you that that is just the beginning you you wouldn't know that for the last five years we've not had one new hotel project in Zanussia not one neither before covid or after covid right now we've started there are at least two hotels that have already started Kazaba beach and the extension to Sanders has the outlook for the tourism industry is very positive but again there are downsides because of the high price of fuel the cost of travel is expensive and Zanussia as you know is a high price destination so we have to deal with that but they are very positive signs as far as our tourism is concerned in terms of agriculture we've sent ship bananas to England and I've got a report from the Missouri culture that the quality was good so we hope to continue shipping bananas to the UK for the first time in many years that we actually shipping bananas to UK and I know I was the I was the the butt of humor when I spoke about bananas but you see what has really happened that because of my my pronouncements of bananas farmers have got inspired and people and they are planting the planting bananas and the local people are doing many things with bananas we are adding value and this was what was important we have to add value on our banana product and we are doing that so that is good secondly in terms of agriculture we didn't very well as far as our our CMOS is concerned our CMOS reduction is increasing again we're trying to to add value to it so there's great demand for sedition CMOS in fact there's so much demand for sedition CMOS that a country has created a product that they call Lucian CMOS so we have to put we have to get now to put what is called an identity marker on our products to ensure that when when they call it CMOS is really authentic sedition CMOS in terms of our our cultivation of bees of of honey that is increasing so then there are some concerns but we need to incentivize agriculture we need because of the issues as we need to food importation and the issue of food shortages is a very serious issue this is why in Suriname this week we we are going to discuss how can Gaena help in our food security issues there was a food investment seminar a few weeks ago what you wanted Gaena has said that because of the the land space they are available that they can make they can become basically the food basket for the region so we are having these discussions to improve our food security but we also have to see about about transportation because you have to move these goods and services between these islands so it's it's it's exciting times but it's difficult to strain we have to get our our priorities right and then we need to find the the mix between social investment social infrastructure and being able to meet our commitments as far as our debt is concerned that is the balance we have to to to strike but in terms of the future it's challenging but a very optimistic about the future thank you Prime Minister and Miss Lafei just to wrap up you have some closing time um based on the economic outlook um signature and the world what would be your recommendations to citizens in terms of how they live um just to reiterate what the Prime Minister said um we've got in the global economic outlook um of course it's um challenging times ahead um but there is well we would have we just to go back a bit um to indicate that coming from the downturn the very sharp contraction that we had in activity um in 2020 um our GDP fell by about 25 percent in that year and the recovery has started started so last year in 2021 we would have actually rebounded partially to just about 12 percent um from that but we're still below the pre-COVID levels we are expecting that despite the headwinds and the very trying circumstances that the world find itself in at this point in time economically um that we expect our tourism product to hold hold its own um of course subject to the different um eventualities that affect travel like for instance the the pandemic and how that evolves and then the the threat women's threat not necessarily that they'll extend to which monkey parks if at all would have any meaningful impact on our tourism outputs um going forward um but again back to the inflation on which is the the area of concern for most countries around the world economies um while now the inflation price is the price that actually quite high at a very very um 40-year peak we are expected and I think there are some early signs um in the advanced countries that the price that we get into ease a bit and there seem to be coming in the downward it's still too early to say of course it's unpredictable what the situation actually unfolds but we are there is the expectation generally that moving out of 2022 into 2023 that um the price levels and inflation will basically subside to some extent over the medium term over the next two to three years um and the same applies for Saint Lucia of course we're a reflection of exactly what happens on the outside on the inflation side but again of course with oil prices being very unpredictable no one knows what's going to happen with the but how long the war will continue or be sustained and to what extent the counterbalance factors of supply and demand actually weigh in favor of the oil producing countries um so for instance the extent to which um the open countries may decide to increase their supply we um we're not sure exactly what will happen with that but we generally expect and I think the general consensus among industry experts is that those price to actually will be coming down somewhat in 2023 on the real sector side as a PM would have indicated and I said earlier we are expecting that our despite these challenges and the the very unfavorable economic environment external environment the government expects that the tourism um sector will continue to rebound towards pre-covid levels by about the year 24 2024 it's going to get back to 2019 levels by then um so the outlook for Saint Lucia is still somewhat um promising amidst the the challenges that there are but of course we have to basically urge persons um in terms of the expectations temporary expectations a bit and to basically um do whatever is within their powers over the control to basically adjust their spending accordingly to minimize the effects of the high escalating prices um on on their budgets of course again um to whatever extent and persons can and even businesses can basically conserve energy and also begin to actually promote and basically increase our food security to help us actually um grow more of what we eat and to basically reduce our import bill and therefore to basically reduce their reliance on on on imports so um it's a challenging time and um it might not be it's I think we need to basically ride this wave um with um some level of confidence and hope that the coming years would be would still remain promising and there will be relief along the way sometime in the medium term I think I would stop now at this point. Thank you Ms Laffey and Prime Minister too um question before you give your um wrap up that I had in my notes um I we've noticed um I'd like to call it propaganda um in to read the DFCs so we understand you spoke about it briefly in terms of what is owed in terms of road road works um there was something circulating on social media about the government being asked to pay I'm not sure asked by whom to pay for 34 million dollars to um fresh start reroad construction um can you provide any clarification on that matter first yeah um yes Monday first of all I just want to make it clear that the government has met or is meeting all its obligations um it's difficult but in terms of obligations towards all these DFCs the government is meeting them um it's meeting them sometimes we're late but we're meeting them they and not you call it propaganda but it's more than propaganda it's dangerous there's been absolutely no agreement to pay fresh start any money not one cent there's no agreement there's no court order there's no arbitration order there's nothing there's nothing that exists to pay fresh start one cent as far as the Taliban and shock roads are concerned and coincidentally I have a letter from fresh start you see pushers of propaganda and people who do not speak the truth must always try to cover their bases before they speak of these things there's a letter dated June 29th 2022 from fresh start and here is what the letter says it says we would like to kindly request an update on the status of the above stated claims presented to your organization on December 22nd 2021 that's a letter they are requesting an update so if we paid them for the seven million dollars they would not they would not request an update I want to tell the public senator that is completely false completely untrue and the government what the government has done is a government has terminated the contract and then negotiations are happening but there's been no agreement to pay fresh start not one cent no agreement not one cent as far as the Taliban and shock roads are concerned and I can put and I have evidence to prove it and finally my last question before Prime Minister gives his closing remarks any update on the vaccines as which is from radical investments I know I'm on behalf of the public of saying this today guys um I've seen this question a number of times on social media people wanted to know what the status was on in terms of the payment the refund for the vaccines that we did not receive um the vaccines that we in fact um there are some you know there are many things that that we're going to put in the public domain very very shortly very very very soon you know we've we've sat for a year we've tried to settle the government we've worked with the technocrats we've tried to settle the government we've tried to settle the country after the the the pandemic we tried to settle it now because of the uk and war but in the coming year I can assure the press that many of the unfounded things and many of the threats and many of the things that you were here are going to be clear I can assure you you're gonna be you're going to be hand a lot more about St. Jude you're going to be a lot more about the the John Thornton Dam project you're going to be behind a lot more about the extension the road in the highway you're going to get a lot more about the vaccines you're going to be going you're going to be paying a lot more, I can tell you to tighten your seatbelts there's going to be a lot that's going to be said about these things, the a year was the year of consolidation a year of settling the government a year of dealing with the issues. As far as the vaccines are concerned, there has been an inquiry into the vaccines. Factors, we've not collected the seven million dollars that was paid. There has been an inquiry. The owner of the company, Radical Investments, he's paid a million dollars and he's paid $1.5 million on the three million dollars I think he had to pay. He's paid $1.5 million and he's promised to pay the rest, which is evidenced by a letter. But as I've said before, you cannot blame the person who provided the vaccines. You can't blame them. If somebody offers you seven million dollars in advance as a businessman, you will take it. That is just common sense. But I want to just give you a little tidbit of a report that we are into the vaccine scenario. Just a little tidbit and I want to read for you. In a press release from the prime minister's office dated July 4th, 2021, not the date, July 4th, 2021, he stated that the procurement was done in accordance with procurement and stores regulations and that due diligence was done by the Ministry of Finance. However, we noted from the dates of the documents presented, as well as our review of the direct award procedure being used at the time, we saw no documentary evidence to substantiate that due diligence was done by the Ministry of Finance prior to the signing, signing the agreement and facilitated payment. In other words, the prime minister at the time lied. So that is as far as that is part of the vaccine story. And these are not my words. These are words of an independent inquiry that was performed looking into the vaccine issue. So there's a lot more to talk about about that issue. But the fact is we've collected $1.5 million and we are hoping to collect the rest, but it was a bad deal. And the blame must fall squarely on the shoulders of the former minister of finance. He was irresponsible. He was hasty. He was reckless. And he paid no attention to the welfare of the taxpayers of this country. Okay. Thank you, Prime Minister. And any closing remarks for the citizens? Well, as I said before, I want to first of all, I want to thank the staff of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce. It has been trying times. It just came through a budget process. Resources are limited and the demands are great. But there are a few things we can report about. We've started the one laptop program. We've paid facilities fees for students. We have paid CXD fees for English and Maths. We have increased our social spending. We've started a housing program. There are some investments that aren't streamed. There are some things we can be proud about. Some things we can be proud about. There's always room for improvement. And the government is completely looking at ways and means of improving, of making processes better, of improving the situation for the people of some nature. We have some serious headwinds. We have some serious challenges. But as I said before, I am optimistic. We're working together with the technocrats in the Ministry of Finance, the technocrats in the Ministry of Commerce. We are seeking the best advice. We're working with our international financial partners. We're speaking to the World Bank. We're speaking to the IMF to see how we can come to a solution that will improve the lives of the people of some nature. Our purpose in politics is to put the lives of the people of some nature. We are going to be launching our youth economy at the budget at the meeting of parliament on Tuesday, the 12th of July. We're going to be launching our youth economy, which is an exciting prospect for the young people of some nature. We're also going to be passing our special prosecutor bill, which is going to be able to bring correctness if there's any need for it. I know you've been asking me all the time, what you're going to do, but as I said before, we are a government of principle. We are a government of due process, and I was not about making any accusation without due process or without proof, so I could make the accusation on the vaccines and make the point that the Ministry of Finance is reckless and irresponsible because I have the documentary evidence to back it up. I want to tell the public of St. Rosha that I want to thank them. It's going to be one year since we understand them for their support. I understand the civil service, the police, the other public officers for their cooperation, and the hard work that most of them have put into the system. It's challenging, but it's exciting. We look forward to next year of great promise, but there are many circumstances that are beyond our control that we have bigger controls. I thank you very much. Thank you Prime Minister and thank you Ms Lafe for joining us, and thank you to the members of the media for being present and to the staff of the GIS for accommodating us. Thank you St. Lucia, until next time. Thank you. All right guys.