NEW YORK, CMC - A major international credit rating agency says the liquidity crisis leading to Grenada’ default on its US and Eastern Caribbean (EC) dollar bonds is “credit negative” for the country and elevates the risk of distress spilling over to member countries in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).
The newly-elected Dr. Keith Mitchell administration in Grenada said it would default on the bonds due 2025 because it is unable to secure financing to make a coupon payment on Friday.
Grenada
KINGSTON, Jamaica - GRENADA plans to commence talks with its creditors to restructure its EC$2.2- billion public debt. Rising interest payments in the face of falling revenue and a high wage bill has prompted the government to miss an interest payment due this month. It is the second time that it has been faced with an interest payment that it couldn't meet within the last six months, although back in September, when the Government felt it couldn't find the funds to pay the coupon on a US$193-million bond, due in 2025, it eventually paid the money before the grace period expired.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Less than a month after he was voted out of office, former prime minister Tillman Thomas remains at the helm of the now opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Party officials who met recently to discuss the outcome of the February 19 general election which saw the NDC trounced 15-nil by the New National Party (NNP), said that Thomas’s leadership was never part of
ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Grenada says it has paid in full the arrears owed to the United Nations and as a result has regained its voting rights at the international body. Grenada was listed among three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments owing the United Nations, according to a January 15 letter UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent to the President of the General Assembly. Grenada is said to have owed US$40,100 while while St. Lucia is in arrears to the tune of US$35,727 and Dominica US$7, 231.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Dr Patrick Antoine, the chief economic advisor to the new Grenada Government, yesterday declared the island was open again after Tuesday’s general election at which the New National Party, led by Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, won all 15 of the constituencies. Speaking on his way to yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony, Antoine said the main challenge facing the new administration would be to raise revenue in the context of the declining economy.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – The Organization of American States (OAS) is recommending that Grenada undertake a comprehensive review of the Representation of the Peoples Act following Tuesday’s general election in which the main opposition New National Party (NNP) won all 15 seats.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Leader of the New National Party (NNP) Dr. Keith Mitchell was sworn in as prime minister of this Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country less than 24 hours after his party swept aside the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in general elections in Grenada. Mitchell, 65, a mathematician, becomes the island’s ninth prime minister since attainting political independence from Britain 39 years ago. He served as prime minister for 13 years prior to 2008 when the NNP was defeated by an 11-4 margin by the NDC.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Newly re-elected Grenadian Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, has one of the more challenging assignments of any political leader in the region. One of the immediate challenges that the Prime Minister faces is to increase the island’s output because, according to the Caribbean Development Bank’s 2012 annual report, output in Grenada fell last year. What’s more, the CDB estimated that the number of stayover tourists visiting Grenada fell by 5.1 per cent in 2012.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - BY the time you read this column, the official results of yesterday's general election in Grenada should have been publicly declared. Grenadian voters had trekked to polling stations aware that, according to forecasts by credible pollsters, the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas was facing defeat by former prime minister Keith Mitchell's New National Party (NNP).
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Supporters of the main opposition New National Party (NNP) took to the streets in celebration here on Tuesday night after the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) conceded defeat in the general election. The NNP, headed by former prime minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, appears heading for a clean sweep of all the 15 seats, a repeat of the 1999 performance. Prime Minister Tillman Thomas as well as his senior cabinet ministers were swept aside in the general election, four and a half years after their had won the polls by an 11-4 margin.