Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, speaking at yesterday’s press conference to report on her trip to Washington D.C. (C.Pitt/BGIS)

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has expressed confidence in White Oak Advisory Ltd., the team that has been assisting Barbados in the debt restructuring process.

During a press briefing at Government Headquarters yesterday, Ms. Mottley described the team at White Oak as “some of the best advisors with respect to debt restructuring”.

She continued: “They have a track record of having worked, not just in the Caribbean in terms of Grenada and St. Kitts, where successful programmes were entered and completed, but also in Seychelles, Iceland and Pakistan. So that at the level of strict debt advisory we have hired, in our view, one of the best …firms in the world.”

The Prime Minister added that at the legal level, in hiring Cleary Gottlieb, Barbados had engaged one of the top law firms, if not the top, in sovereign debt restructuring.

“The partner who is dealing with us has worked on Argentina, Iceland, on almost every major debt restructuring in the world and I believe that some of the creditors would have wanted him to work for them,” she suggested.

Government announced earlier this month that it had appointed White Oak Advisory Ltd. to act as its financial advisor in the context of the debt restructuring process and retained the services of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP as its external legal advisor.

Ms. Mottley said some people were becoming “a little nervous” about the comments being made with respect to Barbados’ debt. However, she said there was no easy way to say a country was suspending debt payments.

She urged persons not to be overly concerned, saying Government had the situation under control, both in terms of debt restructuring and the structural adjustment and fiscal adjustment programme.

sharon.austingill-moore@barbados.gov.bb

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