GRENADA is taking care of debts incurred in the wake of Hurricane Ivan which ravaged the island last year. In the immediate post-Ivan period, based on assessments of the IMF, World Bank and ECCB, the government of Grenada formed an economic restructuring committee to address its debt situation, Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell said yesterday. This included negotiating with creditors and devising a credible restructuring plan and schedule. "I assure you that the Government of Grenada is committed to leveraging the benevolence of the international community into an effective catalysts that will ensure the resumption of the country's credit worthiness," he said during the opening of the 5th Euromoney/Latin Finance Caribbean Investment Forum at the Hilton Trinidad. In January, Grenada hired investment bank Bear Stearns and an international legal firm to arrange an exchange of the country's commercial debt. "It is important to note that what is involved is flow restructuring and not stock restructuring," he said. This means that principal payments are extended not reduced. Grenada's debt exchange programme will close around June, by which time Mitchell trusted the IMF would consider the country's default as having been cured. Reprinted from trinidadexpress.com