Minister of Finance, Christopher Sinckler, has again denied that Barbados issued new bonds on the international capital market.

While delivering the feature address today at The Productivity Council???s one-day summit, Mr. Sinckler reiterated that Government was conducting an asset liability management exercise, in which it was trying to buy back existing bonds.

???Now we put an asset liability management exercise in the market to buy back our 2021 and 2022 maturities. I am advised by the experts and by our international bond advisors that the average rate of participation in a buy-back on a bond is about 40 per cent because it is very difficult to buy back something from somebody that is valuable. The fact that our bond holders buy Barbados??? paper, put it in their back pocket and think very hard about selling it must tell you something about what they feel about those bonds,??? he surmised.

The Minister knocked the recent comments that nobody wanted Barbados??? bonds and that Jamaica???s was a better buy. He said Barbados might not have mastered the market in getting people to buy bonds, but ???we have mastered the art in paying back the people who buy our bonds???

???The record is absolutely clear, Barbados has never, never in its history defaulted on an international bond, or a domestic one for that matter. Regardless of whatever anybody may say, if I were an investor, I would feel more comfortable with the country that I know is likely to pay me back than the country that isn???t.???

sharon.austingill-moore@barbados.gov.bb

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