Bridgetown.
Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler says the Government might be strapped for cash on some occasions but Barbados has never defaulted on local or foreign debut.
Responding to rumours that the Government might have failed to meet its debt obligations to local creditors or debt holders at a press conference held at Government Headquarters, Bay Street, Bridgetown yesterday evening.
“The Government of Barbados has never defaulted on a debt so I don’t know where that has come from either local or international. Governments from time to time have cash flow problems and payments may be delayed from this agency or the other, but that cannot be considered to be a default on debt. That is definitely not the case and I would like to dispel that before we go too far," Sinckler said.
Sinckler revealed that Government was likely to go to international market to borrow soon.
The Miniister said he was disappointed with te current state of the island’s economy and has put the entire country on notice he will soon be serving up some additional measures to solve the island’s fiscal slippage.
Sinckler said after consultations with the Social Partnership and other interest groups, the Government would be taking new measures not only to manage its finances better ut the plan would affect the entire country.
“Generally there really ought to be across the entire country a sense of fiscal discipline, a sense of financial discipline. As you know, not only governments have high debts and high deficits, individuals and businesses can as well and we all have to find ways in which to ensure that we adumbrate our ambitions to the extent where we can meet what we have to do constructively from what we produce,” Sinckler said.
“And that’s really the mantra, so to speak, that’s really the message which we have to give to the general public. But in the context of our own public finances, I can say from the Government’s perspective that we will in fact be bringing proposals to Parliament that will seek to bring our fiscal programme back on track", he added.
Sinckler acknowledged that the situation in the country “is tough” and that the first quarter economic performance and the fiscal deterioration over the last year were significant setbacks but insisted that the problems were not entirely home grown.
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