Global recession threatens Belize’s US$565 million super bond

By now you would know that the world’s largest economies are in recession brought about by the financial collapse in the U.S. The latest is also one of the biggest, Japan, which announced it was in recession last Sunday and in the Caribbean the news is not good. Last week one of the biggest hotels, Atlantis, in the Bahamas dismissed over eight hundred employees. While the official word here at home has been that Belize was safe from the financial crisis experienced everywhere, there is word tonight that the Belize Super Bond launched for debt re-structuring in December 2006 for five hundred and sixty-five million U.S. dollars to be paid in a period of twenty-two years, is now trading for fifty cents on the dollar with a yield of sixteen percent. This is the lowest it has traded and is an indication that there is a loss of confidence by investors in the local economy.

This is not good news for the government. With millions of dollars accrued in damages from the recent floodings and a massive shortfall in the projected petroleum windfall tax, the treasury must be under pressure.