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News > World

IMF Refuses to Discuss Barbuda's Debt After Hurricane Irma

  • Cuba has dispatched a medical brigade to Barbuda and Venezuela is airlifting over 10 tons of supplies as well as rescue personnel to the ravished island.

    Cuba has dispatched a medical brigade to Barbuda and Venezuela is airlifting over 10 tons of supplies as well as rescue personnel to the ravished island. | Photo: Reuters

Published 9 September 2017
Opinion

The country owes a $3 million debt to the International Monetary Fund.

While Barbuda, part of the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, continues to reel from having almost the entirety of its infrastructure and 95 percent of its homes destroyed due to Hurricane Irma, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, has rejected a moratorium proposal to discuss the island's US$3 million dollar debt.

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The refusal to even converse about funds owed by the tiny Caribbean island came from Christopher Lane, the financial institution's special representative to the United Nations, according to Courthouse News.

“Our general view is that we'd rather put new money in than to have a moratorium,” Lane said.

Speaking in a conference room situated in the basement of the U.N.'s Secretariat Building, Lane further exemplified the IMF's position by stating that the institution may borrow funds from the United States and loan them to Antigua.

"If we don't get paid back on time, we'd have to make an arrangement with the source of the funds themselves. It gets a bit arcane, but there's a number of constraints on how we operate," Lane added.

"We're like a bank. We borrow and lend."

While Antigua was spared from Hurricane Irma's devastating and deadly churn, the eye of the storm passed directly over Barbuda. Prime Minister Gaston Browne characterized the storm as landing like a “bomb” over Barbuda.

While the IMF may be unmoved to forgive, or even discuss, the terms of Barbuda's debt, Cuba has dispatched a medical brigade and Venezuela is airlifting over 10 tons of supplies as well as rescue personnel to the ravished island.

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