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WORLD NEWSSaturday 29 April 2017

Puerto Rico faces bank closure, privatizations amid crisis

In this July, 2015 photo, the Puerto Rican flag flies in front of Puerto Rico’s Capitol as in San Juan, The board met in New York process is,” he said.
Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans will be facing a water rate increase, privatization of government op- City to review the plans “We’d like to be in line with
erations and the closure of a bank that once oversaw the island’s debt transactions, officials said just days before a May 1 the government.... For the
Friday as they worked on measures to offset an economic crisis. deadline on which Puerto time being, we are.”
Rico might announce a He said the board and
(AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo) deal with bondholders to government officials have
restructure a portion of its held at least 30 meetings
DANICA COTO on measures to offset an though officials noted that $70 billion public debt or with bondholders in recent
Associated Press economic crisis. the water rate increase will opt for a bankruptcy-like weeks, but no deals have
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) Some of the changes were start in January and that process. been announced.
— Puerto Ricans will be fac- outlined in new fiscal plans the Government Develop- After May 1, the U.S. territo- During its meeting, the
ing a water rate increase, presented to a federal ment Bank will be liquidat- ry will no longer be shielded board reviewed fiscal
privatization of govern- control board overseeing ed within a decade. from lawsuits by creditors plans for the island’s Gov-
ment operations and the the island’s finances. The board recently ap- seeking to recuperate the ernment Development
closure of a bank that proved an overall fiscal money invested in bonds Bank, which owes nearly
once oversaw the island’s The plans for four heav- plan for the central govern- issued by Puerto Rico’s $5 billion to bondholders;
debt transactions, officials ily indebted Puerto Rico ment that contains several government that have led the Electric Power Author-
said Friday as they worked agencies will be amended austerity measures. to multimillion-dollar de- ity, which has $9 billion in
in upcoming weeks, al- faults. debt; the Aqueducts and
The island is struggling to Sewer Authority, which has
emerge from a decade- roughly $5 billion in debt,
long recession caused in and the Highways and
part by previous adminis- Transportation Authority,
trations borrowing billions which has some $7 billion
of dollars to cover budget of debt.
deficits. None of those plans were
The board has the power made public during the
to choose a bankruptcy- meeting, though the
like path for Puerto Rico, board requested public
and it voted on Friday to comments on them.
decide the issue in an ex- Carrion said the board sim-
ecutive session without the ply was too busy and ran
need for a public meeting. out of time to make the
Board Chairman Jose Car- plans public before it met.
rion declined to provide Christian Sobrino, president
further details on what of the Government Devel-
might happen after May 1. opment Bank, requested
“I really can’t talk too much time and space for what
about what our thought he called an “orderly wind
down” of a bank he said
Downpours ruin spring harvest in southwest Haiti was once considered one
of the island’s most presti-
DAVID McFADDEN was overwhelmed by Hurri- so they could start reap- international agricultural gious institutions.
cane Matthew last year. ing corn and beans now. officials said it could be a “A freefall scenario is not
Associated Press Enzo Di Taranto, the head But the rains that tapered decade or more before considered an optimal so-
of Haiti’s U.N. Office for the off Monday have ruined the southwestern peninsula lution,” he said.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Coordination of Humanitar- the harvest or left gravel recovers economically. In Puerto Rico’s other public
ian Affairs, said the destruc- and other debris scattered the Grand-Anse depart- agencies also are strug-
(AP) — Flooding in south- tive downpours that finally on cultivated fields where ment, nearly all crops and gling to overcome their
tapered off on Monday planting was set to take half the livestock were de- debt.
west Haiti has wiped out “certainly came at a very place. stroyed by Matthew, ac- Board members said cer-
bad time.” The 80 percent “Nature isn’t giving the cording to the World Food tain operations could be
as much as 80 percent of figure was an initial esti- people any slack,” said Her- Program. privatized, including the
mate provided by Haitian vil Cherubin, country direc- When the hurricane hit, train system and the gen-
the spring harvest in a be- authorities in the region, he tor for Heifer International, the southwest area was eration of electricity.
said. an international nonprofit just starting to recover from They also pushed the trou-
leaguered region that is The rugged region’s farm- working with farmers in a drought that had de- bled power company to
ers were given seeds after Haiti. Following Matthew’s creased crop production lower its cost of electric-
nearly completely depen- Matthew hit in October destruction, Haitian and by half.q ity to 21 cents per kilowatt
hour by 2023.q
dent on farming, officials

said Friday. About five days

of rain saturated swaths of

the Caribbean region and

triggered flooding across

southwest Haiti, drowning

crops and causing at least

four deaths in the area that