Government has issued a US$500 million bond in the international market.
Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn said the instrument, snapped up by more than 90 global investors, will allow Barbados to repay about US$340 million on a bond that was due to mature in 2029, make a $142 million debt payment to the International Monetary Fund and free up about $372 million in resources for Government “for the remainder of 2025 and through the calendar year of 2026”.
With Barbados having inserted debt disaster and pandemic clauses into the bond, he said this will enable Government to have some financial elbow room in the event of a hurricane or some other major shock.
Straughn was speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday on a resolution under the External Loan Act to facilitate the new bond.
“What is being debated today is not in [and] of itself the borrowing of new monies, but the opportunity to allow Barbados to engage in what we describe as liability management, which is effectively being able to smooth out the debt profile in order to ensure that Barbadians can have some measure of predictability with respect to the management of the tax affairs of this country,” he explained.
“Coming at the end of seven years of significant turnaround with the fortunes of the Barbadian economy, we have reached a point where the conditions were suitable for us to be able to engage the international capital markets again.” (GBM)
