As the international ratings agency, Moody’s, prepares to place the country under review for a potential downgrade,  the prime minister and his government prepares themselves to do what they do best when faced with a complete mess, most of the time of their own making, and this is to talk about it.

“Bid to hold talks over downgrade – Govt. confident over prospects for country.” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “Michael Halkitis, State Minister for Finance, said yesterday the government will meet with representatives from ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s starting next week in order to ‘convince’ the firms not to downgrade the country’s credit rating.

In an interview with the Tribune, Mr. Halkitis said while Moody’s seems to be ‘leaning on one direction’ the government will ‘plead its case’ in hope the Walls Street ratings agency will see the governments future prospects for the economy.”

“The government will ‘plead its case’ in hope the Walls Street ratings agency will see the government’s future prospects for the economy.”?

Really?

I was under the impression that this is what the government had done earlier this year and/or late last year with the rating agencies and that things were looking better? 

What happened?

“Downgraded – Standard and Poor’s lowers Bahamas credit rating” – The Nassau Guardian, August 26, 2015.

Excerpt from this article; “International credit rating agency Standards and Poor’s (S&P) yesterday downgraded the Bahamas’ credit rating and placed the country’s economy on a negative outlook.

The action was taken due to the short-term ‘economic shock’ brought on by Baha Mars’s bankruptcy filing and in increasing ‘remote’ chance of a quick settlement in the resort’s legal battles.”

“Gov’T Plans S&P meeting to ward off downgrade” – The Tribune, February 01. 2016

Excerpt from this article; “The Government will meet with Standards and Poor’s (S&P) immediately after next month’s mid-year Budget in a bid to stave off a further credit downgrade to ‘junk’ status.”

It would seem that the government has had this conversation before.  If I can recall after the downgrade by S&P, Moody’s actually held its credit rating at the time pending the outcome of the Baha Mar matter and due to the introduction of Value-Added Tax (VAT) which they saw as a step in the right direction, now over a year after VAT has been introduced and with claims of it exceeding its initial expectations by the government, we have Moody’s contemplating a downgrade of our credit rating to a level right above ‘junk status’ while S&P contemplates placing the country’s credit rating at ‘junk status’ but yet the Prime Minister is set to be on his way again to ‘plead our case’ and I ask should not our actions have proven that further downgrades were not necessary or has the Prime Minister and his government’s incompetence reared its ugly head yet again as they have failed at the task of protecting our credit rating as they seek to engage in more ’talks’ to ‘save us’? 

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

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