Hold on....Not so fast!

One major reason for the dip in foreign reserves has been purposefully omitted.

The FNM sold $40M in work permits averaging $1,500.00ea. which equates to 26,666.66 non essential blue collar foreign workers entering the workforce.

These foreign workers cohabitate or are live in domestic workers which allow them to repatriate 50% or more of earned income in US Dollars to home countries.

With an average mean income of $275.00 p.w. / $1,100.00 Monthly, each foreign worker repatriates $550.00 Monthly.

26,666.66 foreign workers repatriating $550.00ea equates to $14,666,663 USD leaving the country Monthly or $175,999,956 annually.

This huge amount of dollars leaving the financial system and local economy is the major cause of local business closures, cutbacks and bank layoffs as foreign workers do not patronize local business's.

Foreign worker repatriations are also a major cause of tremendous downward pressure on foreign reserves, undeniably intensifying the currant foreign reserves shortfall.

Due to it's lack of alternatives, backbone and resolve to remove non essential workers to plug the hemorrhage of foreign reserves, this government is expected to continue relying on foreign currency borrowing support to cover imports and debt servicing costs which will lead the country further down an already very slippery slope and into further financial crises.

When compounded with legal and illegal foreign workers here prior to 2007, And legal and illegal foreign workers arriving after 2012 it is easy to comprehend the magnitude of foreign worker USD repatriation and extreme negative pressure on the countries foreign reserves levels.

Once again my PLP apologist friend, you are doing what all PLP's do -- bend the truth. In my banking office, we have 16 work permits. For professional investment managers, bankers, etc, the work permit fee is $10,000. That makes $160,000 in work permit fees per year just in my office. But wait, it gets better. It is not Bahamian dollars. It is paid with foreign funds so it actually contributes to the reserves. And the workers are paid in US dollars that come from abroad and they spend them here. The economic offset of 16 people in my office making over $100,000 a year in American dollars coming into the country and being either spent or converted to Bahamian dollars adds to the reserves to the tune of $1.6 million for just 10 bankers, insurance and investment analysts. But by your flawed arithmetic, that would be 160 maids sending money out of the country. Your numbers are bull crap.

For your poor economic knowledge, let me enlighten you. Every time you buy gas or turn on the power, you are depleting the reserves. The biggest single hits to the reserves are food and fuel. The IDB noted that reserves in December dipped to the point, where Bahamians had enough reserves for two months worth of food, if another catastrophe happened and tourists stopped coming. To keep the power on, Clifton has to continuous burn crude oil by the tanker load. And we grow nothing. The supermarkets are always full, and that represents American dollars leaving the country in vast amounts.

Your xenophobia is appalling and your acquaintance with the truth is appalling. The world bank estimates that the total remittances sent offshore from the Bahamas is less than 1.8% of the GDP.

Agreed.<img src="http://s04.flagcounter.com/count//kfoW/…" height="1" width="1" />

@ Banker....Once again as an FNM minion, you have engaged your mouth in high gear before making any contact with your brain......Which obviously is an absolute essential perquisite for One Man Jackass followers.

Please shut your trap and READ BELOW before jumping to the rescue of everything foreign.

"The FNM sold $40M in work permits averaging $1,500.00ea. which equates to 26,666.66 non essential blue collar foreign workers entering the workforce."

Key words are "non essential blue collar foreign workers". Everyone capable of counting beyond 3 understand foreign expertise is unavoidable and indeed welcomed where needed.

More key words for you one man minion "foreign expertise is unavoidable and indeed welcomed where needed"........Emphases on "where needed"

You may be capable of counting to 3, but you are totally unable to comprehend what you read!

35,000 unemployed Bahamians are proof positive that xenophobia is better than starvation and losing everything one worked a lifetime to achieve.

Ask your fellow recently fired bankers how they fell about YOUR hatred and prejudice against your own nationality.

Unquestionably true UBP mentality!

Dear SPLP Kool Aid Drinker. My point was that the total in work permits cannot be used to extrapolate the number of blue collar workers. Period. There are not enough parameters to separate the blue collar workers from the professionals. The whole $40M doesn't translate into ALL blue collar workers. This is why the PLP keeps getting elected. Their minions are functionally and mathematically illiterate and cannot logically reason for themselves.