Moontown

RICE AND LENTILS PEAS; MACARONI PIE;

SWEET POTATO PIE; SCALLOPED POTATOES;

BAKED CHICKEN; BAKED PORK;

BBQ PIG TAIL; TURKEY STEW;

FISH GRAVY; MIXED VEGETABLES;

TOSSED SALAD; COLE SLAW

Finance Minister Audley Shaw holds up a copy of offer document. - Ricardo Makyn/ Staff Photographer The international ratings agencies followed through to place Jamaica in default on announcement of the $700 billion debt-exchange programme, JDX, that is recalling 350 domestic bonds.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw, reacting immediately, said Jamaica remains current and in full compliance with the terms of all local and international debt obligations.

Standard and Poor’s has cut ratings on Jamaica’s local currency debt to ‘C’ from ‘CCC’ to reflect a “selective default”, but has maintained the ‘CCC’ rating on the foreign debt, which was not affected by the bond call.

Government bonds included in the debt-exchange proposal were also given a revised rating of ‘D’, while those securities that do not form a part of the initiative remained at the current rating of ‘CCC’.

negative outlook

Fitch gave Jamaica’s long-term local currency rating a ‘C’, down from ‘CCC’, but confirmed Jamaica’s long-term and short-term foreign-currency ratings at ‘CCC’ and ‘C’, respectively, while maintaining a negative outlook.

The agency says it views the JDX as “coercive” and put Jamaica in “restricted default”.

Moody’s, however, having pronounced that the JDX was “an event of default”, says its ratings would normally be assigned to reflect the size of expected losses to creditors - information it does not currently have.

“Once there is more clarity on investor losses, Moody’s will likely make a technical adjustment to the rating in the near future,” the agency said in a statement.

The rating agency last assigned a grade of Caa1 to Jamaica, in anticipation of a default.

If investors were to recover 80-90 per cent of value, the rating would fall to Caa2; recovery of 65-80 per cent of value - Caa3; at 35 per cent to 65 per cent - Ca; and at less than 35 per cent, it would be C.

But Moody’s also said Jamaica’s rating “could be upgraded once the debt

exchange is completed”, but only if the programme proceeds as expected and multilateral financing is secured.

Regional agency CariCRIS has also placed the Jamaican corporates on its list under watch, chief executive officer Wayne Dass said Friday.

The JDX will issue 24 bonds to replace those recalled at cheaper rates averaging 12 per cent on JMD issues, and 7.0 per cent on USD bonds.

CariCRIS said the offer, which opens Monday and closes January 26, is likely to have varying degrees of impact on the profitability, capitalisation, asset quality and asset values of financial institutions on its ratings schedule.

Those companies are National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited, its subsidiary NCB Capital Markets Limited, Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited, and its subsidiary Pan Caribbean Financial Services Limited.

The downgrades were not unexpected.

“Rating agencies could possibly further downgrade our bonds because by their very nature, they react unfavourably to any change in the terms of those bonds, even if they are voluntarily executed. That may be the price we must pay to do what we must do,” said Prime Minister Bruce Golding Wednesday night on the eve of his launching of the offer.

For the offer to be successful, Government needs at least 90 per cent participation from bondholders.

In an update on the macro-economy Friday, Stocks and Securities Limited said most institutional holders of GOJ debt were likely to participate in the offer.

The domestic debt exchange forms an integral part of a fiscal reform programme developed in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund.

A US$1.25 billion standby facility is riding on its success.(Jamaica Gleaner)

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com

Dr Frantz Python (centre) of Lake Worth, Florida, and Dr Claude Surena (right) of Haiti examine a woman with a severe foot injury in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last Friday. Dr Surena converted his property into a field hospital for more than 100 injured people following Tuesday’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake. PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP):

It wasn’t long after Tuesday’s earthquake levelled nearly all of the houses next to Claude Surena’s that neighbours started showing up at his doorstep.

For years, the 59-year-old paediatrician had treated the sick at his two-storey hillside home near the centre of the Haitian capital.

Suddenly, he was running a triage centre, treating more than 100 victims on his shaded, leafy patio with food and supplies salvaged from ruined homes.

His undamaged house provides at least a minimum level of comfort away from the devastation - even for the dying - while thousands of others in the city lie in the dirt under a merciless sun waiting for attention from a handful of doctors.

“I have to thank whoever brought me,” said Steve Julien, who says the last thing he remembered before he blacked out was rescue workers calling his name as they dug through the rubble of his house.

When he woke up, he was lying on a mattress inside Surena’s soothing oasis.

“It was a blessing from God my house is safe,” he said. “We at least have been able to do something for everyone.”

The patients show physical and emotional wounds from having their homes collapse on them. Julien, 48, is among the least severely injured, with only a few scrapes and a sore body. Others have compound fractures and festering wounds. Surena said at least 10 patients are in critical need of more substantial help.(J/ca Gleaner)

PARIS (AP):France’s Finance Minister says she has asked creditors of earthquake-ravaged Haiti to speed up plans to cancel its debt.

Christine Lagarde says she “made contact with all Paris Club members so we accelerate the cancellation of the government of Haiti’s debt”.

France is president of the Paris Club of creditor nations, an informal group of industrialised countries.

Lagarde said Friday she is also asking non-members Venezuela and Taiwan, who are owed significant amounts by Haiti, to help in debt reduction.

France was owed €58 million (US$84 million), of which €4 million was already cancelled. The rest was due to be cancelled in stages over several years until 2014. This will now be sped up.

THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY’s emergency aid mission to Haiti, comprising heads of government and leading technical officials, failed to secure permission Friday to land at that devasted country’s airport, now under the control of the United States of America.

Consequently, the CARICOM “assessment mission” that was to determine priority humanitarian needs resulting from the earthquake disaster last Tuesday had to travel back from Jamaica to their respective home destinations.

On Friday afternoon the US State Department confirmed signing two Memoranda Of Understanding with the Government of Haiti that made “official that the United States is in charge of all inbound and outbound flights and aid offloading . . . .”

Further, according to the agreements signed, US medical personnel “now have the authority to operate on Haitian citizens and otherwise render medical assistance without having to wait for licences from Haiti’s government . . .”

Meet with US

Last evening the frustration suffered by the CARICOM mission to get landing permission was expected to be raised in a scheduled meeting at Jamaica’s Norman Manley International Airport with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding who was making arrangements for the meeting with Clinton following her visit earlier in the day to Haiti, said he could not comment on details to be discussed.

However, he, told the SUNDAY SUN: “I appreciate the chaos and confusion at Haiti’s airport, where there is just one operational runway. But Haiti is a member of CARICOM and we simply have to be facilitated and the truth is, there is hardly a functioning government in Haiti . . .”

Asked whether the difficuties encountered by the CARICOM mission may be related to reports that US authorities were not anxious to facilitate landing of aircraft from Cuba and Venezuela, Prime Minister Golding said he could “only hope that there is no truth to such immature thinking in the face of the horrific scale of Haiti’s tragedy . . . .” (RS) (Nation News)

by BARRY ALLEYNE

PAY AL BARACK so Barbados’ international image won’t be tarnished.

According to Opposition Leader Mia Mottley, Government is flirting with damaging this country’s proud international standing by not paying the contractor the $63 million owed to him to date through a court judgment.

And Mottley also gave some financial advice to the David Thompson-led Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration. Thompson, she said, should float a bond so the money can be raised as soon as possible, in spite of what she calls a “clear cash flow problem” Government is facing in the midst of the current worldwide recession.

“The Government needs to pay [its] debt,” she said in an exclusive interview.

“It is a legally recognised debt under the laws of the country. It went through an arbitration process that is recognised by the Arbitration Act, and the rulings came from a former Chief Justice and then a High Court judge.”

She said the Government should do what all Governments do, and stop lagging.

“What Government must not do is devalue the reputation of the Government of Barbados, in respect of its commitment to paying its bills and its debts.

“The truth is, Government now has a serious cash flow problem, although they have tried to deny it. But it is clear, since so many people still have not received their income tax or reverse tax credit payments,” she said.

Mottley said what made the Barack saga even more interesting, was that Government chose not to appeal the decision of Madame Justice Jacqueline Cornelius who made the final ruling, yet it has not made an attempt to pay the man they contracted to build the Government’s office complex at Warrens, St Michael.

“The back and forth really has to stop,” the Opposition Leader added, alluding to a number of comments from Thompson, Barack and Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley which have appeared in all sections of the Press over the past two months.

“It is a large sum of money, but they can raise the bond without a doubt, and pay the debt. What has happened in the Press is unseemly, and I don’t think Barbadians want to see it continue this way.

“We now live in a world where newspapers are read online across the globe, so there is no doubt people can see there is a situation where the Government of Barbados has a debt like this and isn’t paying it,” the Barbados Labour Party leader said.

l barryalleyne@nationnews.com