And, the PM also discussed the IMF at yesterday's nearly three hour press conference. It was in response to a question from 7News, in which we asked about a 29 page document put out by the IMF ten days ago. It discusses Belize's two debt refinancing exercises, in 2006 - 2007, and 2012-2013.
As has been well publicized, the IMF was not invited to assist in either, and they conclude, rather huffily, that, quote, "debt sustainability has not been effectively restored following the two restructurings, thus calling for more robust macroeconomic policy adjustments…further fiscal consolidation is warranted to achieve debt sustainability and reduce future financing needs." The Prime Minister told the press yesterday that he doesn't really give two hoots about what the IMF has to say:..
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize
"We successfully, I don't care what they say, we successfully restructured the super bond when they were insisting that we could not do it unless we entered into an IMF austerity program. Can they tell us anything? I am the happy position where I can say that without any fear of backlash or consequences because I am in no program with them, have no need to get into any program with them and we therefore in this government and in this country are our own masters. They can say what they want, they can draw the conclusions that you say they are drawing with respect to debt sustainability. We know what we are about, we know how we will deal with that and one thing that I could signal from now is being very actively contemplated is not another restructuring, but some form of a debt buy back."
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