$200 Million Due in 9 Days – Barrow Says No Problem

Dean Barrow

Two hundred million in ten days, now actually nine, sounds like a big deal. But it’s not, apparently. In fact, Government says they will have absolutely no difficulty raising the money in the time given.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“Under the arrangement we made, half of the totality of the Award is payable within ten business days with sixty percent being in Belize currency and forty percent in U.S.  The second half of the Award will be payable a year from now. Very simply, we will have no difficulty, especially in view of the excess liquidity in the financial system, getting all the money locally by way of the issue of Government T-Bills and T-Notes. And the forty percent that has to be converted into U.S. and sent abroad will also be fairly comfortably covered by Central Bank reserves. Second, please remember that we are currently selling sixty million dollars- worth of shares in B.E.L. and B.T.L.  Even after that there will still be a little more headroom for selling additional shares in B.E.L., and a lot more headroom for selling additional shares in B.T.L.  We anticipate being able to raise another seventy-five to one hundred million if we go that way, so that borrowing for the Award will be greatly lessened as a result. Of course, we would need to decide whether it is not preferable to hold on to the shares and use the dividends to service G.O.B. borrowing to pay compensation.”

Don’t think for a second the conversation on the arbitration award is done after just one press conference. We’ll have much more in Thursday’s newscast.