WILLEMSTAD--- 19 Oct. 2006 (TheDailyHerlad.com): Normally Curaçao and St. Maarten generate foreign currency while in Bonaire the foreign currency balance has been negative. However, the situation was different in 2005: Curaçao and Bonaire generated foreign currency while St. Maarten “remarkably enough” had a negative foreign currency balance.

The Central Bank made an analysis of the foreign currency flow of the islands Bonaire, Curaçao and St. Maarten. Curaçao requested the analysis in light of the negotiations between Curaçao and St. Maarten concerning a monetary union after both islands obtain their autonomous status within the Kingdom.

St. Maarten will prepare a reaction to the Central Bank report, said Finance Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams during Wednesday’s Executive Council press briefing. “St. Maarten will analyse the objective of the report to see from what angle the information has been developed, and give response to it,” she said.

The Central Bank analysis was handed over to Curaçao Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Zita Jesus-Leito on September 7. The analysis illustrated that Curaçao and Bonaire had generated NAf. 94.9 million and NAf. 41.2 million respectively in foreign currency in 2005. On the contrary, in St. Maarten the foreign currency had decreased by NAf. 41.2 million.

The Central Bank, however, stated that the analysis had to be interpreted with the necessary caution because a thorough investigation of the foreign currency flow was not possible. The five islands of the Netherlands Antilles are being administered as a single entity. To obtain insight into the foreign currency flow of Curaçao, Bonaire and St. Maarten, three separate pay balances for 2005 had been made.

Wescot-Williams said the method of coming to the result of the report had been rejected in St. Maarten. Also the information and way of presenting the information, as indicated by the Central Bank, should be handled with a lot of caution, she said.

The Central Bank stated furthermore that the 2005 figures gave a distorted picture. “While the foreign currency reserve in Curaçao grew, it has to be said that in 2005 Curaçao received a one time NAf. 190 million payment from BRK (Tax Arrangement for the Kingdom).”

The Central Bank also noted that the decrease in foreign exchange in St. Maarten was “not normal.” According to the Central Bank, the construction boom St. Maarten has been experiencing since 2005 caused the decrease in foreign exchange, because of building materials being purchased abroad