There are mixed re­views from some econ­o­mists over Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar la­belling the coun­try a “law­less dump”.

Ac­cord­ing to Prof Patrick Wat­son, the PM’s choice of words was said in poor judge­ment. Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia via tele­phone yes­ter­day, Wat­son said Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s words were not on­ly un­kind, but he be­lieves they can dis­cour­age for­eign in­vestors from want­i­ng to do busi­ness with our coun­try.

He said, “First of all, it’s in bad taste for the Prime Min­is­ter to be say­ing that. And sec­ond­ly, if you’re re­al­ly hop­ing to at­tract peo­ple here, that is clear­ly not the way. You are say­ing that we are a law­less so­ci­ety. I think since they (the Gov­ern­ment) have come in­to of­fice, they seem to be think­ing that they’re do­ing a lot of good things, but I think that every­thing they’re do­ing is quite neg­a­tive.