The Premier's office has side-stepped the Ministry of Finance by calling in its own economic consultant to sort out the country's overheating economy.

revealed yesterday Government was planning to bring in an expert economist from overseas to draw up priorities and a timeline to cool down the economy, with Premier Dr. Ewart Brown's Press Secretary Glenn Jones claiming they were aiming to take on an international consultant for reducing general development.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, which denied the economy was overheating barely three months ago, said it was not directly responsible for the international expert, but would be working with the Premier's office on the matter.

Back in July, the Ministry of Finance said: "The Ministry's 'heat-gauge' on the economy is stable. In other words, there is a reasonable balance between the demand and supply of goods and services in Bermuda's marketplace."

Meanwhile, the opposition have slammed Government proposals to bring in an outside 'economic guru' to tackle the issue, with UBP Senator Bob Richards branding the move as "desperate" and calling on Government to save the money and make their own cutbacks to slow the rate of growth instead.

And he offered a number of suggestions how Government could better control the Island's economy.

"I think this is a sure sign of desperation on the part of this Government," said Sen. Richards. "Dr. Brown wants this sort of guru of economics after many years of uncontrolled spending and promoting growth all round.

"All of a sudden there has been an epiphany that the economy has been overheating, but I have thought it was overheating for years.

"I am glad to hear at last somebody is starting to listen, but I don't think it is right to get in yet another high priced consultant and I think Bermudians have just had enough of these high priced consultants.

"But really you don't need some eminent economist to tell you what is needed."

Sen. Richards reckons there are three solutions to the problem of the fast growing economy.

Number one is to tighten Government purse strings and reduce public spending.

"The first of these is Government itself," he said. "Government spending has been out of control for quite some time and if they want other people to tighten their belts then they have to be the first ones and lead by example and cut down their own spending."

"Government have to clean up their own act first — they can't expect other people to follow unless they lead by example," he said.

The second is to have a tighter control over credit growth.

"We have had an expansion in growth of credit and I have been referring to this since I got back into the Senate three years ago," he said. "This credit has resulted in all kinds of spending in Bermuda which has led to the overheating of the economy.

"It is very important and we have to get into some sort of discussion with local banks and other financial institutions to control to control this level of credit."

Meanwhile, a constriction on the volume of construction projects could also help lessen the speed of economic growth, according to Sen. Richards.

"Thirdly, they have to use the power they have to smooth out the number of large projects in the offing," he said. "There has been no idea when these things will start.

"I have heard there are 14 building projects happening in Hamilton as I speak and there has been no move to control this."

He said it was up to Government to manage the limited resources used for these projects properly.

"The outstanding question is whether or not this Government has the political will to enact this and the skill is that you cool down the economy without causing recession," he said.

See report in Business Section