The director of the Centro de Investigacion Economica de las Antillas (Cenantillas), Pedro Silverio said that the local financing of banks offered to the government by banker Andres Aybar, president of the American Chamber and a former president of the Commercial Banks Association, would be more costly to the nation than issuing sovereign bonds. The government seeks financing to compensate for its budget deficit. Silverio commented that the local funding would be subject to less transparent conditions than borrowing the money on the international capital markets. He said that the borrowing of the bonds would have less impact on the public finances in terms of payment obligations than borrowing locally. Andres Dauhajre, principal promoter of issuing US$500 million in sovereign bonds, said that the bankers are offering the money because they fear that the injection of fresh capital from abroad will reduce their high profitability. Over the weekend, Vice President Ortiz Bosch took the side of those who oppose the issuing of the bonds. She is of opinion that the country should create an instrument to attract the dollars of those that have savings abroad.
