(Jamaica Gleaner) Caribbean governments have sent a strong and clear message to the Group of Twenty (G20) developed countries to extend its Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to highly indebted middle-income countries that are facing harsh economic setbacks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
While commending a move by the G20 to extend the DSSI to the end of June, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that there was a sound basis for it to be pushed back further to 2022.
“Consideration should also be given to expanding its beneficiaries to include highly indebted middle-income countries,” he added.
Participating in a virtual High-level Meeting on the International Debt Architecture and Liquidity on Monday, Holness said that private creditors represented an increasingly large share of the overall creditor composition of developing countries and should be actively engaged to participate in the DSSI on equal terms.