Bank of Guyana stops purchase of Barbados and TT$

Bank of Guyana stops purchase of Barbados and TT$
Sunday, December 11 2016

The Bank of Guyana has temporarily stopped the purchase of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados dollars from local cambios to stabilise Guyana’s foreign currency situation, the country’s Central Bank Governor Dr Gobind Ganga has announced.

He has also warned commercial banks about the amounts of TT dollars they were buying.

The Stabroek News quoted Ganga as telling a press conference on Thursday that there was no chronic shortage of US dollars, but there was “a situation” that may have led to local businesses complaining about a shortage of foreign exchange.

Ganga said there was evidence that traders from Barbados, TT, and to a lesser extent Suriname, were buying large amounts of US dollars in Guyana. This was due, he said, to the economic situation in those countries.

Referring to comparative statistics, Ganga said the TT dollars in circulation in Guyana rose from $9.1 million in 2014 to $38 million to date. The Barbados dollars rose from $8 million in 2014 to $13 million presently.

Assuring that the Guyana economy was a “solid” one, Ganga said commercial banks were satisfy ing the local demand for foreign currency.

Nevertheless, they have been cautioned about the amounts of TT dollars they have been buying, he said.

“The commercial banks are dealing with this situation as we speak. Some of them will be bringing back some foreign currencies they had elsewhere to address some of the demand,” he said.

A lot of people would have gone to the commercial banks and to the cambios requesting foreign exchange for speculative purposes and it was easy to do so.

He also said Trinidad businesses were struggling to pay for goods such as sugar and rice from Guyana.

The Central Bank has asked commercial banks, Ganga said, “to always be careful otherwise we will end up like Trinidad, where Trinidad can’t pay GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation) for sugar bought over one month ago. It is just US$1 million.” A rice exporter, he said, is owed about US$670,000 from a Trinidadian importer.

“It is now reflecting in our system - their problem,” he said.

It's Rowley's fault , all the foreign US dollars going to large companies . >

when they stop buying T&T and Barbados currency ,that means trouble .