Chairman of the board of Sunshine Holdings Franklyn Wilson says that, the state of the Bahamian economy is "foul".

Speaking with the Bahama Journal Sunday Mr. Wilson who is involved in a wide variety of businesses in The Bahamas including oil, real estate and insurance says local investors have lost millions of dollars in the last 12 months.

The businessman said, "The value of shares listed on The Bahamas International Securities Exchange [BISX] has declined by some 11 percent in the last 12 months. This translates to some $300 million in equity which has been wiped out and which is owned by thousands of investors and dozens of pensions funds, representing thousands of other Bahamians."

He said the value of all the shares listed on BISX is in the region of $3 billion and 11 percent of this has been lost.

"Share values increased for various reasons but the main one is when investors believe that the performance of the companies will improve and that the earnings will increase. It is obvious that Bahamian investors today are not confident of the prospects," said Mr. Wilson, who is a chartered accountant by profession.

He also offered that some investors would be selling shares because they need the money. Another category is that some people believe that in a difficult economic climate, some investors would liquidate their shares for cash.

Mr. Wilson said that one of the problems in analyzing the economy is the absence of data or statistics and comments on the economy is based on antidotal evidence. Mr. Wilson says the performance of the Bahamian economy is influenced by economic condition globally but particularly what happens in the United States of America. It is also influenced by policy decisions of our own governments.

"There is no doubt that the economic conditions in America are unfavourable and are affecting the Bahamian economy. It has caused virtually every one of the mega projects in New Providence and the Family Islands to stall or at least slowed.

"At the same time, there is no doubt that several policy decisions taken by our own government have contributed to the problem. Those decisions to stop, suspend and review contracts after the last general elections were unfortunate and adversely effected the economy," said Mr. Wilson.

"Additionally, partisanship totally aside, there is compelling evidence that the present government is directly responsible for the Baha Mar deal having been aborted. The fact of the matter is that the government had every opportunity to close that deal and simply blew it. The government at the time was not in a position to know that the economy was shifting so rapidly in decline. They probably acted on the presumption that they had more leverage and could drive tougher bargain than subsequent events have established to have been the case," he added.

Mr. Wilson, who is a major shareholder in Focol, said the price of oil has escalated in part because of the declining value of the US dollar. Oil is priced in US dollars, he said.

In further justifying the claim that the state of the economy is "foul," Mr. Wilson said in the last several weeks he made it a point to canvas the views of persons from many backgrounds in the business community.

He said it is known that in the hotel industry room revenues are not what they should be. And the president of the Bahamian contractors association has made it known that members of that Association are not busy. Business, he said, is down in the retail industry and the motor dealers have reported that their financial results have been brutal in the last few months.

By the Bahama Journal