Guardian EDITORIAL
Solutions in a time of financial woe

On February 20 of this year, the government of Belize will have to make a payment of 27.5 million dollars to service the super bond. On August 20, another payment of 27.5 million dollars will have to be made again to service the super bond. That’s a whopping 55 million dollars that will be taken from government’s meager finances to be used to service that vaunted debt! What is noteworthy is that the payments that will be made will be going strictly to cover interest which this year stands at 4.25%. The principal will not begin to be paid until 2019.
The terms and conditions of the super bond are such that as the years go by the payments that will become due will continue to increase. Next year for example the payment then will go up to 65 million dollars and the year after it will go to 92 million dollars. That’s one heck of a consideration that the government has to be making now. But more than a consideration, it’s a reality that for the sake of servicing a debt which was incurred and with little to show for it, nevertheless, has to be made. Consider the sizeable amounts of money that this government has to find in a time when money is not so easy to come by. It will take some creative thinking and money-magic to meet the obligation.
While making the payments is one thing, it must be noted that the problem with making these payments is the fact that while the country incurred humongous debts there is very little that can be shown to justify these expenses. Now monies that could have been employed in social improvements, infrastructure, education, industry creation and economic stimulation in general at a time of recession; is being tossed into a black hole of former financial mismanagement. Nothing can be done about that; after all, this government came into office knowing well that it would not be an easy road ahead.
Nonetheless, this government is pressing on. It is accessing finances from financial organizations that would under the previous administration not even look in the direction of Belize much less lend the country money. Those monies that are now being secured are the driving force behind the major projects that the country has undertaken in the areas of education, agriculture, infrastructure, the Development Finance Corporation and tourism, to name a few areas of investment. These efforts to access concessionary funding from institutions like the European Union, the Inter American Development Bank, the World Bank, CABEI and other financial institutions to push on forward has been what has maintained the country afloat. Indeed the government under the leadership of Hon. Dean Barrow has been able to find solutions in a time of financial woes. In October the Prime Minister announced that the country was experiencing a recession. That is that the economy had constricted over three consecutive quarters.
Now it appears that the constriction is beginning to become less. The Prime Minister says that contraction has gone from 2.2 percent in the first quarter of last year to 1.9 in the second and 0.2 in the third; he anticipates that by the fourth quarter there will be no contraction and shortly thereafter economic expansion will begin. That is surely good news if we ever needed it, and more news to be grateful about is that the world is slowly coming out of the recession.
So despite the fact that we may be spending money on bad financial decisions of the past, the creative thinking of government money managers combined with favourable international financial projections, this government will be able to pull the country through, at great difficulty but still pull us through it will.
Guardian

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