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As we mentioned earlier, half of the award has to be paid within 10 days.  Subtracting 65 million dollars that has already been paid, the outstanding figure is 380 million dollars.  So, that means half – 190 million dollars has to be paid by the end of next week.  That’s not easy for government to come up with in a few days – and the Prime Minister explained how they will scrape up the money:…

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"Half of the totality of the award is payable within 10 business days with 60% being in Belize currency and 40% in US. The second half of the award will be payable a year from now. Very simply we believe we will have no difficulty especially in view of the excess liquidity in the financial system; getting all the money locally by way of issue of government paper, bills and notes. And the 40% that has to be converted into US and send abroad will also be fairly comfortably covered by Central Bank reserves."

And apart from the strain on the reserves, this substantial additional debt will cause Belize’s debt load to balloon, likely sending the debt to GDP ratio into the 90% range, which is the red zone.  It will also cause a spike in the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP. 

Today the PUP issued a release strongly criticizing the government’s handling of the BTL nationalization.  The release says, quote, â€œBelizean taxpayers will have to pay almost half a BILLION dollars. Including the payment of 97 million dollars to British Caribbean Bank last September, GOB will have had to pay over 550 million dollars for its appropriation of BTL in 2009…

More than half a Billion Dollars to be paid to one man, Lord Ashcroft, is a result of the Prime Minister’s arrogance. The Prime Minister MUST take blame for his actions, which will be an unbearable burden for Belizeans.â€￾ End quote.