The National Council of Private Business (CONEP), the country’s leading business organization, warned that the increase in foreign borrowing by government departments will have a negative effect on government finances. Conep criticized that the borrowing is going on without a central policy or defined purposes. The press and opposition parties have also criticized the borrowing spree. Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch and Technical Secretary Rafael Calderon defend the borrowing saying that the country has the lowest debt in Latin America, at 17% of the Gross Domestic Product. Calderon said the average in the region is 54%. He justified the US$500 million sovereign bonds program, saying it will be used for productive public works, while US$200 million will go to social programs and all the other loans will not amount to more than 20% of the GDP. El Caribe newspaper recently reported that the government has asked Congress to approve 20 loans for more than US$505 million with little if any restrictions on how the money is used. Recently, Federico Antun Batlle of the PRSC said that instead the government should seek matching funds so it can distribute the Inter American Development Bank and World Bank soft loans it has already secured. He commented the government will have to pay US$60 to US$70 million on the sovereign bonds without the country knowing for sure what it will do with the money.
