That St. Maarten has received an offer to refinance Dutch COVID-19 liquidity support totalling 316.4 million Netherlands Antillean guilders (see related story) is in principle good news. Not being privy to all details it seems better to leave judging the conditions up to experts, but an interest rate of 3.1% and “free of instalments with loan parts with various terms” certainly sound reasonable.
Nevertheless, local public finances will remain vulnerable in the coming years and it is important for everyone to realise that as parliamentary elections loom. St. Maarten’s relatively low debt quota at around 50% of gross domestic product (GDP) late 2022 helps, but the money will ultimately have to be paid back.
The same can be said for an additional loan Curaçao and St. Maarten are getting to safeguard 30,000 pensions due to solvency problems at insurance firm ENNIA, as also reported in today’s edition. Addressing that issue crisis was a requirement to refinance the COVID-19 loans maturing on October 10 too.
No amount for the new Ennia-related loan was announced, but a capital injection of 600 million euros had been mentioned earlier. While the two Dutch Caribbean countries must carry the business risk, revenues from a possible sale of the company or obtained in ongoing legal proceedings against shareholder Parman Group of Hushang Ansary will go towards offsetting the cost.
So, although this may not necessarily make life any easier for the governments in Philipsburg and Willemstad, it does afford an opportunity to overcome both these crises, at least for now. Time to move on.
