Source: Insurance Journal
The Bahamas may need to tap international debt markets as it confronts the steep cost of recovering from the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the islands.
The government will probably borrow about $500 million in coming months as it deals with the roughly $3.4 billion in losses and damages from Hurricane Dorian, said K. Peter Turnquest, the Caribbean nation’s finance and deputy prime minister. The government is weighing options for how it will raise the debt, with some combination of an international bond sale and local borrowing likely, he said.
Dorian sat over the Bahamas in early September, killing dozens, causing widespread flooding and ripping apart thousands of homes and businesses. The storm’s aftermath has wrecked the government’s fiscal plans, as it faces a slowing economy and the costs of reconstructing the islands so they can withstand the types of massive storms that have wrought devastation across the Caribbean in recent years. Continue reading here.
