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Come October, the Venezuelan government will increase by up to 100 per cent the interest rate it charges under the Petrocaribe initiative, media reports say.

Petrocaribe is an initiative of deceased Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, which sees participating countries purchasing oil on conditions of preferential payment.

The initiative allows for participating nations, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines,

To purchase oils but only pay 5 to 50 per cent up front and the remainder over a period of up to 25 years at 1 per cent interest if oil prices are below US$40 per barrel.

Reports say that beginning in October, the interest rates will be increased to 2 to 4 per cent but could be lower for poorer nations.

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I-Witness News is unaware of any statement by the Dr. Ralph Gonsalves administration on the development.

But in Jamaica, the announcement seems to have taken the government by surprise.

Both Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell and Finance and Planning Minister Dr Peter Phillips were unable to comment Sunday beyond that they had not received any official information from Venezuela of any such increase, the Jamaica Observer reported.

2 replies on “Petrocaribe interest rates to double – reports”

  1. Petrocaribe Interest Rates

    It had to happen, you get nothing for nothing. The only good thing is possibly the contracts are designed to be unenforceable so we will not repay them a cent. Remember our teachers contract that turned out to be unenforceable, I mean that kind of thing, perhaps even a purposeful design fault.

    When you borrow money even if there is no interest at all, it still has to be repaid. Somewhere down the road our great grandchildren will be in big trouble because of the work of one very fiscally stupid man, a donkey in mans clothing.

    Peter Binose
    Self appointed keeper of the whistle.

  2. Even 20 million dollars borrowed today @ 2.5% compound interest, if repaid in 20 years time will be almost 33million dollars. So don’t say 2.5% is nothing, it increases what we pay back by more than a third.

    And all these borrowings from Petrocaribe are for the airport, its just a horror story. At the rate we are going in 20 years time we could owe trillions of dollars, and Gonsalves will be dust to dust by then. Its our grandchildren and their children that will pay for this folly.

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