The NPS faction leader Gregory Rusland expressed concern about the efficiency of the Central Bank’s TD auctions last Monday during general political discussions. He also brought up the topic of inflation and changes in exchange rates. As a component of the Central Bank’s Open Market Operations (OMOs), Rusland claimed that the TD auctions had failed to reduce inflation. Rusland claims that the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS) has actually increased the amount of money in circulation in a relatively short period of time by paying interest, which provides at least SRD 1.5 billion to banking institutions, and has thus placed a time bomb under the stability of the exchange rate. Rusland remarked, “I wonder how this CBvS policy compares with the broader policy of promoting output growth.
He stressed that if banking institutions can easily earn 90% or even more from investments in TOs with the CBvS, they are reluctant to finance new production businesses at cheap interest rates. Rusland stressed the importance of considering how the CBvS makes these significant interest payments. Is she earning enough money to pay such high interest rates without difficulty? If so, why doesn’t it distribute these profits to the state, as required by the Banking Law, to fund the government’s social programs or to construct production-oriented infrastructure? Rusland questioned, Year inflation ended last year at 60.7 percent, but annual inflation up to April this year was still at the level of December 20.
