Government will not need to borrow from the international capital market this year, says Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Dr Delisle Worrell.
During a Press conference to discuss the country’s economic performance in 2010, as well as projections for 2011, Worrell said that, unlike the case last year, Government had no big payments to make and could rely on private capital inflows.
He said that the inflow of private capital was projected to be higher than last year when it was estimated at over 370 million, consisting primarily of real estate sales, financing for several tourism projects and funding for a major manufacturing project.
Official inflows included a loan of $90 million from the Inter-American Development Bank to support alternative energy production, and a loan of $50 million from the Caribbean Development Bank in support of official economic policy.
In addition, inflows were boosted by the flotation in August of a US$200 million bond, half of which went to repay a maturing obligation.
“We are pretty confident that there will be a pick-up in private capital inflows. As you know, there are a number of major projects which were stalled, which we have now gotten moving again,” Worrell said.
He added that private capital might exceed projections if villa sales picked up.
“There are a number of ongoing projects where the sales have been a bit stagnant for a year or more.
“We’re yet to see a real recovery in that market, but if that does come, then we can be in an even better position than we are expecting,” he said.
Worrell stressed that the country’s foreign reserves were a contingency fund and were not normally used to pay for imports.
“During 2010, imports were fully financed out of receipts from tourism, international business and financial services, exports of goods, and private and public capital inflows,” he said. (NB)
