Latest update July 27th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 23, 2024 News
Kaieteur News – Already saddled with enormous debts, Guyana is poised to sign another major loan agreement with the Canadian Government.
In a statement on Thursday the Canadian Government said that as it continues to strengthen bilateral relations with Guyana, Canada’s Minister of International Development, Ahmed Hussen and the Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas, Mr. Glen Linder will be traveling here next week for two days to oversee the signing of a Sovereign Loan Programme agreement between the Governments of Canada and Guyana.
Minister Hussen will be in Guyana from February 25-26 for several other high-level engagements, the Canadian High Commission here said. The high commission said at the signing event, the media will get more details about the loan programme, as well as hear remarks from Hussen, Guyana’s Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh, Guyana’s Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, and the High Commissioner of Canada to Guyana, His Excellency Mark Berman.
In its budget 2018, Canada had allocated over $600 million to deliver the Sovereign Loans Program (SLP). Through this five-year pilot programme (2019 – 2024), Canada provides low-interest sovereign loans, primarily to middle-income countries, to support their investments in poverty reduction and peace and security. Through the SLP, Canada aims to generate beneficial social, economic and environmental outcomes that would not occur in the absence of sovereign lending. All initiatives must contribute measurably to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and be aligned with at least one of the six action areas of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. Lending decisions are made with the economic development and welfare (including peace and security) of the recipient as the main condition of lending.
The department will work to ensure that initiatives funded by the SLP are aligned with international best practices on debt transparency and are not contributing to unsustainable levels of debt in recipient countries. The SLP will work closely with Finance Canada, who leads on Canada’s international debt policy and represents Canada at the Paris Club.
According to the Government of Canada, the SLP provides sovereign loans on concessional terms to eligible recipients, tailored to their needs and priorities as they relate to poverty reduction and peace and security. The SLP improves the breadth of support Canada can deploy, and aligns Canadian international assistance with other leading donors.
Global Affairs Canada negotiates sovereign loan terms and conditions on a case-by-case basis with eligible borrowers. Those terms must fall within the following parameters: maximum loan term of 10 years; fixed interest rate equal to the Government of Canada’s cost of borrowing; principal and interest payments must be made on at least an annual basis; loans can be issued in CAD, USD, GBP, JPY, or another currency identified by the International Monetary Fund as an official foreign exchange reserve currency; and, total outstanding loans made to or guaranteed by a country under the SLP cannot exceed 20% of the loan portfolio or $120 million, whichever is greater.
Back in January the Guyana Government enhanced its debt borrowing capacity by $1.35 trillion when it passed the Fiscal Enactments (Amendment) Bill 2024 in the National Assembly. The move, part of a broader financial strategy, is proposed to increase the nation’s capacity to finance its $1.146 trillion 2024 budget, including several large-scale infrastructure projects. The amendment will affect both external and domestic debt ceilings.
At the end of 2023, total Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) debt stood at US$4,508.8 million, up 23.4 percent from the position at the end of 2022, on account of new external and domestic borrowing. At the end of 2022, the country’s debt stood at US$3,654.9 million. Guyana’s external debt amounted to US$1,775.5 million at the end of 2023, up 13 percent from the position at the end of 2022.
Meanwhile, domestic debt reached US$2,733.4 million at the end of 2023, up from the US$2,083 million at the end of 2022. This increase was attributed to the Government’s issuance of new Treasury Bills. The country’s debt service also increased in 2023. Some US$177.3 million in revenue went towards debt service last year, up from US$150.2 million in 2022. This increase was driven by both domestic and external debt service payments. Domestic debt service payments totalled US$76.4 million in 2023, up from US$65 million in the preceding year. Finance Minister Dr. Singh had said that the growth of domestic debt service payments was due to a full year’s worth of principal repayments on debentures issued in 2021 to securitise an inherited overdraft at the Central Bank. External debt service payments rose from US$85.2 million in 2022 to US$100.9 million in 2023, on account of higher principal and interest payments to official (multilateral and bilateral) creditors.
BE THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL TO THE FOREIGN EXPLOITERS
Jul 27, 2024
Kaieteur News – Former table tennis player Edinho Lewis was on Friday placed on $1,350,000 bail when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court before Principal Magistrate Faith...Kaieteur News – A frightening situation is developing. The law enforcement agencies have been seized a number of illegal... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – Everyone’s heart should cry out for the people of Union Island, Carriacou,... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]