Only $15 Million in Petrocaribe Funds Left

Joseph Waight

Between 2012 and 2015, when just the word Petrocaribe was enough to inspire poetry, song and euphoric frenzy, Government’s coffers were said to be bulging with hundreds of millions. The closest we’ve gotten to an official figure is somewhere in the region of close to four hundred million dollars. That’s a whole lot of money. Would you like to hazard a guess as to how much Petro-pennies are left in those coffers today? Well you don’t have to guess. We got the official word from the Financial Secretary Joseph Waight at an event on Monday. He gave News Five an update on Petrocaribe and also on G.O.B.’s debt repayment bill. 

Joseph Waight, Financial Secretary

“As you know the price of oil has fallen dramatically. Consequently the amount of financing available from Petrocaribe also is falling. It’s a percentage of the total import bill, so we are seeing the benefits of it up front in our balance of payments being less for the same volume. The price has gone from eighty dollars down to almost forty now, so it’s about half. Consequently the amount of financing is also being reduced substantially, but still enough to keep us going. We’re getting maybe a million dollars or so every two weeks.”

Reporter

“The last time I asked you couldn’t give me an exact figure. In November we were down to forty million I believe. Where are we at this point?”

Joseph Waight

“We’re down to about fifteen.”

Reporter

“Fifteen million left in Petrocaribe?”

Joseph Waight

“Because remember we had compensation payments to make and also commitments coming out of it and we borrowed a little as well.”

Reporter

“Could we also ask you Sir the figure in terms of repayments every year?”

Joseph Waight

“The superbond is half our payment…half our debt and half our payment. The rest is made up of bilateral, which is Petrocaribe, World Bank, multilateral and others. And we’re paying something close to three four hundred million…sorry I got it wrong, back up. We’re paying on the superbond about fifty million dollars Belize a year on interest, and another…the rest of the amortization interest maybe another fifty million as well…so maybe one hundred and twenty million.”