But the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is projecting economic growth of between one and 1.5 per cent in 2012.

The CDB in its annual review of the regional countries said that the growth ranged from a downturn in countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to marginal growth in CARICOM countries like Barbados, St. Lucia and the British Virgin Islands.

But the CDB, which is the region’s premier development banking institution, said The Bahamas, Belize Dominica, Jamaica and Grenada all recorded “stronger than marginal growth” while only Haiti and Guyana had economic growth in excess of five per cent in 2011.

The CDB, which is holding its annual board of governors meeting here, said that emerging and developing economies have been the key drivers of the global economic recovery, as advanced economies, the region’s main trading partners, have continued to struggle with “lingering weakness in financial, labour and housing markets”.

It said the recovery in the bank’s borrowing member states in the region “has therefore lagged behind” and that preliminary estimates indicate that 12 of the 18 countries registered expansion in real output during the year.