Prime Minister Mia Mottley today promised that she will update the country soon about the Government’s external debt restructuring plan.
“Those discussions are continuing, and the public will be advised shortly of what we will be doing with respect to the foreign debt situation,” Mottley said on the call-in programme Down To Brass Tacks on Starcom Network Inc.
“The truth is, the foreign debt has always been the smallest part of our overall debt, it’s just over 20 per cent. But we do anticipate that we will have to bring resolution to that within the next few weeks to months.”
External creditors have been awaiting word from Government on debt-restructuring following Mottley’s announcement, shortly after taking office, of a suspension of payments due on debts owed to external commercial creditors.
Mottley said then that her government had inherited more than $15 billion in public debt.
An upbeat Mottley today sought to assure Barbadians that the country will be successful in building a new society, that gives people opportunity, that is rooted on the premise of fairness and justice and that give Barbadians a sense of pride again.
“Barbados is coming back economically and socially. We’re not there yet, we have to stay the course, we have to remain focused,” she said.
“The community – regionally, internationally and locally, the majority of people with whom I interact – feel that Barbados is coming back and want to give us that chance, but they recognize that this is not a 100-metre race. This is a marathon. We are passing all the right signs, we’re doing all the right things, but we cannot replace time. Time has to be gone through in order for us to finish the course.”
She described the Barbados economy as a patient that was suffering for a decade.
“The truth is that the medicine has only been applied for the last six months – so let’s give it a chance. So far, the medicine which is being applied is far less bitter than it might otherwise have been,” Mottley said.
“There are those who did not believe that the domestic and the foreign debt restructuring should be part of the equation; and we said no, because the saving that we get in interest are approximately $500 million and the savings that we will get this year in amortization and principal is about $800 million.”
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Our prime minister will try to be as transparent as possible, it will be harsh for many, but thats reality as God cant please all of us.dont give up the fight focus and meditate.
Easy for you to say that because you’re probably well off
So time the country get back on track many will die from stress
They said nothing when the DLP were raping and plundering this country for 10 years leaving us with 15 billion in debt and no new corresponding assets to support the debt. They said nothing as the middle class were being wiped out. They said nothing when we were running out of foreign exchange and could not buy drugs or medicine. Now after only 6 months of leadership they have the nerve to complain.
The patient has been suffering long before the last decade Mia, if you really want support from us who know the truth, then come with clean hands, and fresh breath. Stop spewing the filth that”s coming from the mouths of your operatives, cabinet members and indeed yourself. If you’d say that Barbados became critically ill over the last decade, I would tend to agree, but when your party left office in 2008 Barbados was already suffering from chronic economic illnesses.
What is important now is that the medicine prescribed by
Dr. Greenidge and company, administered through B E R T pharmacy, and distributed by you, the B C C I and the IMF is causing serious side effects. These side effects will certainly require continued future diagnosis and increased critical care until knowledgeable medical professionals are hired to treat our epidemic condition. This B L P government simply don’t cut it, its all talk, fluff, PR gimmicks and cosmetics.
The cosmetics has failed to make the ugly situation appear under control, and it’s clear the BERT medicine has not produced the much promised improvement to our health as you and your partners in crime wish to make us believe. Reality will hit home soon, you will look worse than the D L P did.
The poorest will always pay….!
No matter what..?…
GreenGiant, all we asked is for you and the followers of the Lost Party to be honest to yourselves. The 10 years and 90 days rule of the lost party were the worst years both in terms politics and economics since the 1930s.
They “pillaged” the country, and now this government has to do the heavy lifting while you and their supporters are spreading rumors in order to distract from the good things that are happening in real-time, and what is on the horizon that will be of benefit for us all.
When you have a situation where you were printing $50 million a month for rougly 2 years do you think a fix will only take 6 months? For years we have been maintaining a civil service we could not afford but instead of addressing it, we kept printing so as not to rock the boat with elections coming. Well folks pay day is now here!
It was the mismanagement of Owen Arthur and his crooked Ministers during his reign, that started Barbados’s increased speed down to the pitts of economic distress. They had all the money, but Arthur borrowed and borrowed and borrowed. You couldn’t keep him and his greedy Ministers from going to Parliament for supplementaries. Mia Mottley and Carl Harper(aka Liz) formed that shady bunch. May of the old players are now part of the present MPs in power.This new regime, once denounced high taxes and suffering, which it claims were the trade marks of the ousted DLP Administration, from 2008 thru 2018. The slicksters usd scare tactics, like devaluation of the Barbados dollar, and the sending home of workers, as weapons of DLP destruction, and the truckery worked. But lo and behold, since the new bosses came to power nine months ago, he only thing left to go up, is our asses from their present positions, to a new station on our shoulders. Meantime, the pot holds are still there, and have become ponds, we have more gunmen now that before, more suicides than before, and BERT being unfriendly, but g ay. More wool is coming coated with the sweetest talk, to further brainwash the gullible.
@Mike
Greengiant is not a follower of the “lost party” (DLP). She is one of the few survivors of the UPP “pressure group” that has never been found.
It would be inappropriate for me to disclose her real name in this forum, but you just might see her pass by if you wait in the Collymore Rock area.
Your nasty panties are showing Carl Harper..Liz.
Oh Dear!
There goes that JOHNNY again with his below the belt comments….wonder how BT got that slipped through.
…at the greenMOUTgiant and that CROW….the BEES weren’t voted out for mismanaging the Economy in 2008…they were voted out BECAUSE that CROOKED DEMOCRATIC LABOR PARTY was ALL OVER the place saying that Barbados needed a change.
Everybody knows the ROT started after DAVID THOMPSON took over…even their rep. came at my window back then and said ” Barbados needs a change “…but the two a DEM needed to say that probably to experience another orgasm.
Mottley does not live from pay check to check and does not have a job .So it is easy for her to say the medicine is not bitter
Her words smack of insentivity and selserving
Those people living from pay check to pay check are the ones feeling the bitterness and were the ones who voted for better not bitter
Mia ought to choose her words carefully before blowing smoke in the faces of those who are feeeling the pain of the bitter medicine
In terms of how the DLP has handled the economic situation, [Verla] Depeiza said: “Sometimes the medicine is bitter like gall but it is the thing that kills the worm”.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/159761/depeiza-comparison-mottley-stuart
JOHNNY CROW: Fantastic first comment.
@Mike and Carl Harper: Owen Arthur and the last B L P administration left the country in ill health, Thompson failed to administer medicine timely, and Stuart failed to administer any at all, so the ailment became chronic. Now Mia has caused an allergic reaction to the medicine she’s prescribed, produced by BERT, and distributed by the I M F.
You two can say all you like, the facts are there for all Barbados to see. Like those die hard supporters who couldn’t see the ill effects of the D L P’s non action and self serving style of managing.There are those die hard B L P’s who will try to blindside the entire nation with their P R campaign. The teachers union is the latest body to call for the P R to be replaced by real action.
By the way Carl I don’t drive down Wildey at no time, actually I don’t even drive, but such is the desperation to know who the Greengiant is. I was recently called the son of a lady whom I had to pull up for some negative utterances, but I understand the desperation to identify the Giant. You will know when the bell is rung next time. I will stand like a tower over the B L P in their efforts to deceive Barbadians. The medicine prescribed is wrong, it’s too harsh, it’s making the business community, the domestic consumers, and indeed even potential investors ill. Borrowing without any sustainable growth plan being applied immediately is a recipe for total disaster. What will happen when the borrowed money dries up, there’s insufficient sustainable investment, with the remaining need for energy and food imports? Cut the long talking and answer that question.
@Greengiant: “What will happen when the borrowed money dries up….?
You will come right back here in this forum in 2024 and say “I told you so”, and sounding off that the BLP will not get a THIRD term. The thing is your UPP will never get the opportunity to prescribe the medicine — right or wrong.
Hope I answered your question concisely enough.
Let’s all agree that both parties made mistakes so in an effort to move forward where do we go from here? We had an unsustainable government expenditure which had to be reigned in. The printing of money placed severe pressure on the reserves so that had to be dealt with. The local and foreign debt repayments were strangling us so that had to be addressed. Finally we had a civil service that could not be maintained at that size based on our current revenue level so yes that had to be dealt with. My point is that whichever party had won the elections the above would have to of been quickly addressed. So we can go on blaming B and D for the next 5 years or we can all accept that serious change must now come, you choose.
@John
Someone once said that Bajans have “short memories”. With that in mind, it is therefore my duty to NEVER let them forget the rape the last DLP government committed on Barbados taxpayers’ monies and the destruction it caused on the island.
Carl I agree with you that we must never forget the past and in reality it is always the road that takes us to our present. What concerns me though is our future. I think that is where we must use our energy in terms of sharing ideas and venting concerns. Having said that though we must learn from our past and ensure as a country we never find ourselves here again. As you know I don’t get in the party thing but I still think some good ideas are vented by both party faithfulls. What I think we should avoid though is blind party loyalty and be man or woman enough to call a spade a spade. As McArthur said ” it is not the winning battles we learn from but the losing ones.”
And John, I am in full agreement with you. But you see for yourself what is spewed in this forum. How can one have a reasonable discussion with persons other than yourself and sometimes Greengiant? I especially like Greengiant because she suffers from “delusions of grandeur” that the UPP will be the next government in 2023. Your fairness and balance are always appreciated, John — kinda reminds me of mine. Heheheh
Carl I like to read all the different views as they all have a point. I just skip over the ones I see as blind loyalty. What I feel we should do when reviewing thhe performance of our island is this. Look at it as a company with us as the shareholders. Then view the government as the board and the PM as chairman or chairwoman. We then need to ask ourselves how has the company done? Has this board performed? Has the chairman been able to direct the board? In other words remove names and party from these persons for this purpose and judge them only on their performance. If we just do that occassionaly even the most blinded party loyalist may see a different picture. Unfortunately in politics you only get to change the board once every 5 years whereas in business you get that chance at every AGM..
“Your fairness and balance are always appreciated, John — kinda reminds me of mine”. Really CARL!
Go and come again and stop fooling yourself, not when it comes to being fair and balanced, because you are one that suffers from Blind Party Loyalty along with Turnover Harry. And by the way the DLP left 6 billion$$ while in hard time and the BLP left 9 billion$$ while in good times for fifteen years.
@John: “We then need to ask ourselves how has the company done? Has this board performed? Has the chairman been able to direct the board?”
Now you see why the people of Barbados had to change the “Chairman” and the “Board” with a 30-0 defeat on May 24 (“AGM”) in such a resounding and historic manner.
The “Company” did poorly and was just not performing in the interest of the “shareholders” — only for friends and cronies.
Lol as I said when you remove names and faces these things tend to happen! I was told once by an old successful politician in a conversation the following.” when bajans complaining you got a chance but when they go quiet your goose cook.”
@Sonyfair: “And by the way the DLP left 6 billion$$ while in hard time and the BLP left 9 billion$$ while in good times for fifteen years.”
What are you talking about? I think you are confusing yourself. If you mean that the BLP left a current account debt of $6 billion in 2008 and the DLP added $9 billion onto that by 2018, leaving a total of $15 billion in mountainous debt, then you would be accurate. And the only thing to show for it was raw stink smelling sewage flowing on the streets of the south coast.
Now you are the one so caught up in blind party loyalty that you cannot even see when you don’t have your facts correct.
@John: “when bajans complaining you got a chance but when they go quiet your goose cook.”
Yuh got dat right, John! Bajans were very quiet from the start of 2018 and deadly silent during those last 90 days. And on May 24, they surely “cooked some goose”.
Now nine months later DLP yardfowls cackling and “complaining” because the BLP dirtying their hands cleaning up the filthy mess the Dems left behind. This must mean the Bees are doing something right and are well-positioned for another “chance”.
@Carl Harper: Your entire focus and that of the government is on the next election constitutionally due in 2023. The BERT programme is geared towards completion, and extension going into the 2023 election, but it will not go that far. The risk is great for an implosion. The very requirements are even beyond the expectations of your economic team, and has so shocked your cabinet that only the Prime Minister and Dr. Greenidge are believers in the programme’s success.
Never mind the publicity, the confidence publicly exclaimed by the private sector leader, some cabinet members, and others. Take note the Central Bank governor, the CDB representative and the new leader of the economic society have expressed similar concerns to those I’ve been expressing for months now. Note also that the I M F team, and indeed Dr. Greenidge have been unusually silent since the recent inspection. I have taken special note of this unusual situation.
So focus on the issues facing your administration Carl, not whether the UPP will win an election or not in 2023. there’s much to do before we get there, but I know full well Mia’s eyes are fully focused on the next election and nothing else.
Greengiant, you are one hopeless and hapless individual. Your diatribe and rhetoric is becoming monotonous, now. One can feel your hatred for anything BLP and Mia. The one thing that you may have to resort to is beating the electorate over the head to get them to vote for the UPP.
Barbados is going to hell in a hand basket under this so called Govt.