This week Minister Maduro attends the IMF spring meetings held annually by the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. During this week, the president will meet with IMF executives, representatives of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the IMF as well as World Bank executives.
Minister Maduro will also use the opportunity to meet with some commercial banks to explore the possibility of refinancing Aruba’s debt, especially its accumulated debt with the Netherlands to overcome the pandemic.
The possibility of refinancing Aruba’s debt
During this visit, Minister Maduro will examine the possibility of refinancing the international debt of our country. Aruba has always lent money on the international market and due to the pandemic has accumulated a debt with the Netherlands as well.
Now that the pandemic is over and Aruba is recovering, it is time to start paying off the debt to the Netherlands, which is due in October. It has just started meeting with the Netherlands to discuss the conditions under which it will refinance the debt of the pandemic.
The Netherlands has indicated its willingness to refinance Aruba’s pandemic debt on commercial terms, as market interest increases with a profit margin. Given that the Netherlands will not give Aruba and any other country ‘kwijtschelding’ and will not refinance the debt at 0% preferential interest, it is good to explore other possibilities for refinancing Aruba’s debts.
Minister Maduro will approach instances such as, among others, IMF and World Bank, to explore what they can offer Aruba in special funds for recovery after COVID.
The envoy will also meet with some commercial banks to see what options Aruba has on the international capital market. In this way we can have a better view of all the options for refinancing our national debt.