Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

212 reading”, were “too weak” and that important issues were not well highlighted. His solution was for each of the publications to have a “report coordinator” who would set the themes, do the overview, determine what boxes were to be included and what should be the principal issues. The regional journals were also accessible for publication purposes. Apart from Social and Economic Studies (SES) articles were published in the ISER’s Occasional Papers Series and the Bulletin of East Caribbean Affairs , later the Journal of East Caribbean Studies . Several of the papers which were included in the SES were previously presented at the Annual Conference of the RPMS, now the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance (CCMF). The other two outlets for publications were international journals and the books, singly or jointly authored and/or edited by Bank staff. As its publications record grew, the Bank quickly became an independent and credible source of information on the Barbadian economy. Because of their importance to economic debate, the demand for the Bank’s publications, in particular the Annual Report , was very strong. The publications were frequently quoted in public discussions, in parliamentary debates and on political platforms. The statistical publications, for example, enabled anyone access to a wide range of macroeconomic data in one document for the first time ever. Prime Minister Tom Adams, while delivering the feature address at the Bank’s 10th Anniversary dinner on May 4, 1982, said, “There are few more profound take-overs that I have ever known in politics than the take-over by the Central Bank of the sources of economic information in this country.” Left to right: Dr. Michael Howard, Bernard Codrington, Dr. DeLisle Worell and Edsil Phillips.