Guatemala
Legislature Approves Government Bonds With Limits
Guatemala - Guatemala's
Congress has approved a three-billion-guetzal
($360 million U.S. dollars) government bond
issue bill, despite strong opposition from
the Patriotic Party, according to news
reports reaching here on Friday.
The bond issue bill included a clause that
bars the government from spending on
anything that was not budgeted. Passing the
bill means the government would cut the
nation's budget by at least 10 percent this
year.
Some Patriotic Party leading figures still
opposed the bond issue.
"Social programs don't have trustworthy
transparency mechanisms ... and they don't
lift the poor out of poverty," said
Patriotic Party legislator Ingrid Roxana
Baldetti Elias.
In July, the Finance Ministry said the
country's tax revenue totaled 1.87 billion
U.S. dollars during the first half of this
year, down 8.3 percent from the same period
last year. |
