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Last week we told you about the Haywood Trust, one of the Ashcroft related entities that invested US$5 million in the Belize Superbond. The point of the purchase was that the bond was selling at 37 cents on the dollar – which is considered a very low trading value. According to the Haywood release, the low trading price is indicative of a commensurately low opinion of Belize’s finances on the international market. And that interpretation strengthens Ashcroft’s case against the government – with whom he is in a bitter and protracted war being waged on multiple fronts.

Fair enough, the bond’s selling on the cheap, but government has its own interpretation of the current state of the bond market and Belize’s place in it. The Prime Minister’s office has sent us a graph showing how the yield rate on the Superbond has consistently outperformed what is known as the EMBI Index, the scale that measures how bonds from emerging markets are performing.

And while the Ashcroft position we believe will be that Belize’s Superbond has a lower trading value than others in the region, government has another card to play in its defence. The Standard and Poor’s ratings issued yesterday forecast Belize’s rating as stable and affirmed the sovereign credit rating of ‘B’ for the long and short term. We have also confirmed that government is considering purchasing some Superbonds itself, which would amount to considerable savings on its own debt.