KINGSTOWN, ST. Vincent, CMC -Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves says the public debt of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has risen to EC$2.8 billion (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents), approximately 93.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) as of the end of September last year.
He said the figure is 16.9 percent more than in the same period of 2023. Gonsalves told Parliament that, as of September last year, external debt had increased by EC$232.6 million, or 12.9 percent, compared to 2023.
Domestic debt accounted for 27.8 percent of the total, EC$786.5 million, and external debt, EC$2.04 billion, represented 72.2 percent of the total.
Debt service for 2025 is estimated at EC$358.2 million of the current revenue, comprised of interest payments of EC$120.8 million, amortization of EC$215.4 million, and sinking fund contributions of EC$22 million.
Gonsalves and Opposition Leader Godwin Friday have offered differing views on the country’s obligations to its debtors.
While Gonsalves outlined an initiative that he said would continue to impact positively the debt burden in 2025, Friday noted that the national debt will cost EC$358.1 million in 2025.
Presenting the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for 2025, Gonsalves said that the total domestic debt, which amounted to EC$818.5 million as of September last year, increased by EC$179.9 million compared with the domestic debt for the same period in 2023.
He said the external debt for the period stood at EC$2.04 billion, an increase of 12.9 percent or EC$232.6 million compared with the year-ago period.
The addition to the external dead includes loans from the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), namely, the Port Modernisation Project, EC$16.1 million; the School Improvement Project — EC$16.1 million; and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Project — $19.5 million,
The CDB loans also went to the National Disaster Management Programme for Hurricane Tomas — EC$22.3 million; the Sandy Bay Sea Defense Resilience Project — EC$5.4 million; the Improving Responses and Resilience of the Health Sector Project —EC$8.5 million; and the Strengthening Response Recovery and Resilience in the Health Sector Project — EC$12.6 million.
The government borrowed EC$48.9 million from the World Bank and the International Development Association for the Volcano Eruption Emergency Response Project, EC$33.3 million for the Caribbean Regional Digital Transformation Project, $8.6 million for the SVG Unleashing the Blue Economy Project, and EC$28.5 million for the Human Development Service Delivery project.
During the period under review, the government also borrowed EC$45.4 million for the Port Modernisation Project and EC$67.5 million for road rehabilitation.
The country also borrowed EC$26 million from the CARICOM Development Fund for hotel development. Gonsalves said that Taiwan’s debt is EC$45.4 million for port modernization and EC$67.5 million for the national roads rehabilitation project.
Gonsalves told lawmakers that St. Vincent and the Grenadines was the first borrowing country to receive debt suspension forbearance from the World Bank under the climate resilient debt clause.
The bank launched this clause in early 2024 as part of its Crisis Response toolkit to support countries most vulnerable to natural disasters.
“Under this initiative, we’re able to amend some of our existing and new loan agreements with the World Bank to include these climate-resilient debt clauses, which automatically allow for debt service deferral for a period of up to two years once certain criteria have been met whenever there’s a natural disaster of a certain magnitude,” Gonsalves said.
He said the initiative has resulted in an estimated EC$8.1 million in debt service forbearance from the World Bank for the next two years.
Gonsalves is scheduled to present the budget to Parliament for approval later on Monday. Friday will lead off the Budget Debate on Tuesday.
and then 