PHILIPSBURG--The Government of St. Maarten and Curaçao are running out of money – literally. The joint monetary union only have two years’ worth of banknotes of its official currency – the Netherlands Antilles guilder.
The guilder was taken over by the two countries upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10, 2010, since then a new batch has not been printed.
Finance Minister Mike Ferrier said in the Council of Ministers Press Briefing Wednesday, that he and his counterpart on Curaçao are discussing the way forward.
“We are running out of a supply of currency” and a decision must be made in “three to six months” at maximum to avoid a currency crisis, Ferrier said.
At play is not just reordering stacks of banknotes. A decision must be taken on whether to keep the current guilder design or opt for a new, less prone to counterfeit one. A new design would incorporate the latest technological advancement in anti-counterfeit technology.
Another aspect to be dealt with is whether the two countries will continue in the long term to use a joint currency as the Netherlands Antilles guilder or create a Caribbean guilder; whether they will opt for currencies of their own; dollarize by opting to use the United States dollar as official tender or the euro of the European Union.
