Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Governor Timothy Antoine has lauded the strength of the EC dollar, asserting that the currency instills confidence.
Antoine spoke at a church service in St Kitts on Sunday, October 1, 2023.
It was part of the ECCB celebrating 40 years of maintaining monetary and financial stability and promoting growth and development in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).
Antoine recalled that forty years ago, the Bank had around $250 million in assets.
“Forty years later, we have assets in excess of six billion dollars,” he observed to applause from the audience.
He declared that throughout the Bank’s history, people could count on the EC dollar being one US to 2.7 EC dollars.
“I was speaking to a businessman a few weeks ago, and he said, ‘Governor, I don’t know if you understand or you have any idea how much the stability of this dollar means to me, means to our business and means to the business community,'” Antoine related.
He recalled that the businessman disclosed doing business all over the world and dealing with suppliers globally, and cherishing the EC dollar’s stability.
“Not far from here and in countries far larger than our small states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union are currencies that do not enjoy that stability,” the ECCB Governor stated.
He observed that people could go to bed and wake up with their savings halved in value due to inflation or a change in the currency.
“We take these things for granted,” Antoine explained.
In this regard, he praised the men and women of the ECCB who work hard to keep the EC dollar strong.
Antoine also asserted that God has been good to the Bank.
The ECCB was established on 1 October 1983.
It is the monetary authority for its eight member countries: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Christopher (St Kitts) and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
That’s Good, Go Ahead !
“Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Governor Timothy Antoine has lauded the strength of the EC dollar, asserting that the currency instills confidence””
In St. Vincent, a box of Kelloggs cornflakes is $17 and rising. In St. Lucia, bread is almost unaffordable and grocery shopping has become a luxury that only a select few can comfortably afford. The savings of an entire generation wiped out. The wealth of the generation before us exhausted through consumer debt to pay for the cost of living.
Those who once considered themselves middle class have dropped a notch or two on the status scale in this socioeconomic nightmare, yet he speaks of stability.
I suppose this inversion of reality is a central bankers dream where debt is wealth and misery is prosperity.
When was the last time you did your own shopping Mr. ECCB Governor?
The reality is that the EC dollar is being devalued on a level that the average person can’t even fathom causing rising prices in everything everywhere. We might as well be tittering on hyperinflation and this central banker calls it strength and stability.
It’s only a matter of time until we begin to use the US dollar as our primary currency, because the EC dollar is fast becoming worthless. Their trick then will be to replace one worthless currency for another and call it a monetary ingenuity.
Is this a central bankers idea of an economic joke?
When inflation is rapidly wrecking the livelihood of the average households within the Eastern Caribbean islands, Timothy Antoine proceeds to insult our intelligence with this mockery.
Spare us your twisted sense of humour please.
I see that little Timmy Antoine now sings for his supper in a church choir!
It’s a wonder that he did not get struck down by lightning for his brazen lies in front of the congregation.
We know that his illusory statements are only based on the fact that the EC Dollar has always been pegged to the US Dollar (EC$2.70:US$1.00). However, the value of the US dollar is grossly overrated: The US debt now stands at US$35 trillion – just this week another US$1 trillion worth of US Treasury Bills were issued; three-quarters of the world economies are aggressively pursuing a regime of US de-dollarization. Perhaps, his eyes have been closed in prayer for the last couple of years, so he could not see what economic events have recently occurred in the world.
If the preacher had been forewarned about little Timmy’s theme, he might have counseled, via his sermon, against building the EC economic house on the sands of US debt!