THE HIGH COST OF BORROWING MONEY FOR THE BAHAMAS

Reviewing the pricing of the Government’s bonds today show clearly that perhaps the crisis in financing for The Bahamas under the FNM is closer than we are aware.

Please see attached the price of the Bahamas Government ten year paper in comparison to US$ debt issued by other countries in the region with a similar tenure (10 years).

Two things stand out: we have the highest cost of any country other than Ecuador and Argentina and both countries are in an IMF programme; and the cost of our debt is 500 basis points (more than double) higher than Jamaica which has a lower rating than what we have currently.

The market is clearly expecting that we would be next up for an IMF programme.  Any discussion about the economy has to be based on these facts.  This should be widely disseminated.