The Caribbean is no stranger to sovereign debt restructurings. It is hard to imagine another region of the world with a higher ratio of GDRs per capita. In only the last ten years (a blink of an eye in sovereign debt years), each of Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis have undergone debt restructurings and Jamaica has done so twice. So what is newsworthy about the debt restructuring just completed by Barbados? There are two significant “firsts”, as will be described in more detail in this article: - first use in the Caribbean of local law legislation to introduce a class voting system across exiting local law sovereign bonds, a la Greece ; and - first country to take advantage of a re-papering of the terms of its domestic and foreign sovereign debt to include a “natural disaster” clause to enable the deferral of debt service costs in the event of significant damage caused by a natural disaster. Barbados is, economically, in a relatively privileged position within the Caribbean. Its GDP per capita is in the same IMF bracket as Portugal and Mexico and three and four times than the GDP per capital of Dominica and Jamaica, respectively . Geographically too, Barbados is in a relatively privileged position. It stands out on its own, about 150kms east of the crescent of islands that make up the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands, known collectively as the Lesser Antilles. It’s latitude makes it one of the more southerly of the Lesser Antilles, which is believed to make the island less at risk of hurricane damage than more northerly islands. However, Barbados’ privileged position made it particularly vulnerable to the financial storm that followed the global financial crisis. As a service provider of higher end Caribbean vacations, Barbados was particularly impacted by the downturn in vacation spending by those in the UK, US and Europe whose disposable income had been constrained by the financial crisis. As one of the wealthier countries in the Caribbean, international private creditors had been keen to provide loans and buys bonds issued by Barbados in the boom years leading up to the financial crisis. Even before the fall in GDP per capita that coincided with the financial crisis, the debt to GDP of Barbados had been rising precipitously from 53.8% in 1999 to 100% in 2009. By the time prime minister Mia Mottley swept into government following a landslide election victory in May 2018 (in which her party won all 30 seats in the Barbados parliament), the island’s debt to GDP had reached 175% including arrears. With characteristic decisiveness, immediately on entering office Ms Mottley announced that there would be a restructuring of the country’s debts.

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2018-2019 年巴巴多斯主权债务重组——像岛屿一样，小而完美

加勒比地区对主权债务重组并不陌生。很难想象世界上还有一个地区的人均 GDR 比率更高。仅在最近十年（主权债务年的一眨眼功夫），安提瓜和巴布达、伯利兹、格林纳达以及圣基茨和尼维斯都经历了债务重组，牙买加已经这样做了两次。那么，巴巴多斯刚刚完成的债务重组有什么新闻价值呢？有两个重要的“第一”，本文将进行更详细的描述： - 第一次在加勒比地区使用当地法律立法，在现有的当地法律主权债券中引入阶级投票制度，就像希腊一样；- 第一个利用其国内外主权债务条款重新制定的国家，包括“自然灾害”条款，以便在自然灾害造成重大损害的情况下推迟偿债成本。巴巴多斯在经济上在加勒比地区处于相对优越的地位。其人均 GDP 与葡萄牙和墨西哥处于同一 IMF 档次，分别是多米尼加和牙买加人均 GDP 的三倍和四倍。在地理上，巴巴多斯也处于相对优越的地位。它位于构成向风群岛和背风群岛（统称为小安的列斯群岛）的新月形岛屿以东约 150 公里处，独树一帜。它的纬度使它成为小安的列斯群岛中更偏南的地区之一，据信，与更北的岛屿相比，这使得该岛遭受飓风破坏的风险更小。然而，巴巴多斯的特权地位使其特别容易受到全球金融危机之后的金融风暴的影响。作为加勒比高端度假服务提供商，巴巴多斯尤其受到英国、美国和欧洲可支配收入受到金融危机限制的度假支出下滑的影响。作为加勒比地区较富裕的国家之一，国际私人债权人在金融危机前的繁荣时期一直热衷于提供贷款和购买巴巴多斯发行的债券。甚至在与金融危机同时发生的人均 GDP 下降之前，巴巴多斯的债务占 GDP 的比例就已经从 1999 年的 53.8% 急剧上升到 2009 年的 100%。到 2018 年 5 月以压倒性选举胜利（她的政党赢得巴巴多斯议会的所有 30 个席位）后，总理米娅·莫特利（Mia Mottley）进入政府时，该岛的债务占 GDP 的比率已达到 175%，包括欠款。莫特利女士一上任就以特有的果断宣布，将对该国的债务进行重组。