St Lucia is under $4 billion debt due to previous government, says PM Pierre

St Lucia: Prime Minister Philip J Pierre, on the informal discussion with media personnel, has said that country’s finances are in a mess and soon the government would reveal the findings.

PM Pierre, who also holds the office of Finance and Economic Development, said that they do not want to get into the business of creating a panic in the country after forming the government. He added that the country is in near $4 billion debt and additionally, there is below the line debt of over $120 million.

He further added that the Labour administration has to look into the national finances and trends very carefully.

Pierre added that, this week, the cabinet announced the appointment of 7 member committee to review the financing and scope of the Hewanorra International Airport Redevelopment Project. The report would be submitted within 90 days.

Hewanorra Airport is US $186 million worth of debt to the country. “What we want to do – we want to find ways to re-engineer the debt, or we can restructure the debt to remove the burden from the people of Saint Lucia and give us more fiscal space,” the Prime Minister said.

“We made it clear that we are not stopping the project – that’s clear. We are not stopping the project, but we want to redesign it so that we can have fiscal space so that we can do other projects,” he said.