As pandemic impacts economies globally was VI smart to not take UK Loan Guarantee?
This would mean that even the Virgin Islands would have found it a heavy burden to repay the loan, especially also with the possibility of rising interest in debt interest payments.
And with the UK having to bear the burden of repayment if the VI was unable to honour its debt, the colonialists might also be grateful that the VI has not yet taken up the offer.
Rising inflation in UK
According to the BBC on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, rising inflation led to UK government interest payments hitting a record high for the month of January 2022.
It said interest payments hit £6.1bn last month, the highest amount for a January since records began in April 1997 and up from £4.5bn last year.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the BBC figures showed "we are still spending an awful lot more. We are poorer than we were."
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the government had "provided unprecedented support" through the pandemic.
"But our debt has increased substantially and there are further pressures on the public finances, including from rising inflation," he said.
"Keeping the public finances on a sustainable path is crucial so we can continue helping the British people when needed, without burdening future generations with high debt repayments."
Rise in unemployment in UK
It has also been revealed that despite UK Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson stating otherwise, unemployment has risen since the COVID-19 pandemic
The head of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) has said Mr Johnson was wrong to claim more people are in work now than before the pandemic.
Writing to the PM, Sir David R. Norgrove said the number in work was estimated to be around 660,000 fewer than before coronavirus struck.
He suggested Mr Johnson had excluded a fall in self-employment numbers when making the claim.
He warned the "selective use of data" would "give a misleading impression".
Risk of Loan Guarantee not worth it- Dr the Hon Wheatley
One of the concerns of the present and past administrations was that the borrowing ceiling in the Protocol for Financial Management needed to be adjusted as well as some of the terms attached regarding defaulting.
One of the fears was that if the VI failed to repay its debt it would lose control of its finances to the UK.
Speaking in the House of Assembly in December 2021, Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture Dr The Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) said: “We haven’t borrowed anything by this administration and that’s okay because we were executing the $65 million loan [From the Caribbean Development Bank] but we have a challenge as it pertains to the loan guarantee because of all of these conditions which were attached to this loan guarantee which are essentially unfavorable for us.”
He continued: “My grandfather who was the first Minister of Finance for this government back in 1978 or so, and we have a legacy of being in control of our own finances as we haven’t received any grant in aid from the UK in over 40 years. So we want to maintain control of our finances and we fought hard for that and that is something that is important to our progress as a people."
Dr Wheatley had also stated that it didn’t make sense for the VI to summarily dismiss its concerns about losing its financial autonomy because of a loan guarantee and the conditions attached to a loan guarantee.
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22 Responses to “As pandemic impacts economies globally was VI smart to not take UK Loan Guarantee?”
The borrower is slave to the lender. Nothing new same old story. We’n forget how it played out with jaspert pushing this loan on Andrew to sign like it was his sole mission & calling the COI during a global pandemic after not getting his way. How’s that caring about our recovery...
Thank God for Andrew Fahie. history will show that he saved the BVI
DECRIMINALIZED.!!!!
AND THE PACKAGE DEAL CONTAINED TOO MANY STIPULATIONS... INCLUDING THE PASSING OF (GAY) RIGHTS LAWS.. IN AN
SO CALLED CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY..!!!!
And as for Sanctions against Russian Oligarchs ..IS THIS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY CALLED THE (BVI) OR IS IT THE (VI)
WE CAN NOT EVEN DECIDE WHICH FLAG TO FLY.. EUROPEAN UNION OR BRITISH.... MEANWHILE NATO AND THE EUROPEAN
UNION IF THEY PUT UP AN UNITED FRONT CAN CRIPPLE THE RUSSIAN ECONOMIC SYSTEM...!!!!