Mining and Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, a couple months ago gave some sort of assurance that Jamaica was a preferred partner with Venezuela and would not be faced with any changes to the PetroCarbie deal, which was being said to be unsustainable.
The country bought his explanation, but knowing I am dealing with a teflon coated minister, I was not going to buy anything he told me unless I have that backed by the Government involved.
News has now emerged that the Venezuelan economy is in serious crises and is teetering on the brink of collapse and its debt has been downgraded to B-. This raise the question about the terms and conditions of the PetroCaribe deal, which one can see cannot be sustained under the existing conditions.
I do hope Phillip Paulwell will have something to tell the Jamaican people ( who are interested) in what all this means for the country and what new interest rate Jamaica can expect and when will that rate kick in.
The GOJ will also need to explain how will this impact our balance of payments and the likely impact on the IMF deal.
Fox Business Report.
Venezuela’s increasingly radicalized economic policies coupled with tame oil prices threaten to further erode the Latin American country’s already-alarming financial condition.
In recent days, both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s downgraded Venezuela’s credit rating, with Moody’s warning of a “materially higher risk of an economic and financial collapse” thanks to government policies that have “exacerbated” the situation.
The picture on the ground is already scary: inflation that has surged beyond 50%, economic growth that has plunged to just over 1%, soaring bond yields and the lowest levels of reserves in nearly a decade.
Here is the S&P Report
http://www.standardandpoors.com/prot/ratings/articles/en/us/?articleType=HTML&assetID=1245361715423
Warren's Blog 
Leave a Reply