GOVERNMENT GETS FLEECED ON THE MONEY MARKETS

Peter Turnquest, Finance Minister, failed us again

Chester Cooper, the PLP’s Shadow Minister of Finance, issued a statement in response to the announcement by the Government that its has secured a 600 million dollars U S loan at a rate of 8.95 per cent.  The FNM tried to be clever by circulating a document that said they were offering 9.25 per cent to the market. Then the next day said that they got it at 8.95 per cent. What good boys they were?   But Mr. Cooper said that their loan, obtained too late in the day will cost something like 50 million dollars per year in interest alone.  The total sum at the end of payment in 2032 will be 1.2 billion dollars. Sad.  The situation is so bad that the mouthpiece of the Prime Minister Ivan Johnson’s Punch attacked Finance Minister Peter Turnquest in the most vicious terms on its front page on Thursday15 October 2020.