ST GEORGE’S, Grenada: At a special sitting of Grenada’s House of Representatives last week, the government and the opposition agreed upon four motions that will help Grenada recover from the ravages of Hurricanes Ivan and Emily. Loans for development purposes will be granted by some of the commercial banks in Grenada -- the National Commercial Bank, the Bank of Nova Scotia, Grenada Cooperative Bank and FirstCaribbean International Bank – and will provide an EC$40 million aggregate loan to assist the government with its current and development needs. An overdraft facility will also be combined with this loan, which will serve the same purpose. Finance Minister Anthony Boatswain said, because of the need to present more favourable terms and conditions to the government to finance its outstanding obligations, and instead of incorporating the overdraft in the overall debt restructuring pool, the government decided to treat the commercial banks separately. “The existing overdraft facility that was used for the purposes of assisting government with its recurrent and development needs will now be termed out over a period of 12 years, so the facility that was existing is now converted into a term loan,” said Minister Boatswain. The overdraft facility carries an interest rate of 9.5 - 10.5 percent and, according to Minister Boatswain, this can be converted into a loan with moratorium of three years, which will result in government paying 5.75 percent on that loan. The Opposition Shadow Finance Minister Nazim Burke said the opposition received no detailed information on the loan offers but given the country’s efforts to rebuild and restructure its debt they will support the bill. Minister Boatswain said as a result of the this loan agreement with the commercial banks the government will save money on interest and servicing of its overdraft and debt. He said this is a prudent approach to debt management and debt restructuring. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com