From the New York Times comes the report that the Suriname ground to a halt recently as
its banks, shops and factories shuttered in a showdown between its
beleaguered private sector and its authoritarian government over how to
respond to a deepening economic crisis.
The
closures brought a new and unpredictable tension to the streets of
Paramaribo, the capital of this nation in the north of South America.
Most people stayed home to comply with measures to fight the coronavirus
pandemic.
But anxiety mounted as ATMs
ran dry in the cash-based economy and supermarkets, afraid of being
overrun by nervous shoppers, were closed.
The showdown made Suriname, a Dutch-speaking ethnic melting pot of
600,000, the latest and most extreme example in South America of how the
pandemic and a plunge in commodity prices are destabilizing weak
economies and polarizing political systems.
The slide in the price of Suriname’s two
main export commodities, oil and gold, over the past month has
effectively left the country without enough hard currency to pay off its
debt and import basic goods, leaving the country on the verge of
default.
In addition, the departure of
Dutch tourists as a result of the pandemic, which has sickened eight
people in Suriname so far, has deprived the street economy of a
significant source of euros.
Suriname’s
economy has gone into a tailspin just as the country is preparing for a
crucial vote. In May, its president, the former military dictator Dési
Bouterse, will seek another term despite being convicted of homicide by
Surinamese judges and of drug trafficking charges by the Dutch.
His son, Dino Bouterse, is serving time in an American prison on drug- and terrorism-related offenses.
In
an effort to shore up the local currency, stem inflation and stop
capital flight ahead of the vote, the government imposed strict new
restrictions on foreign currency transactions. The governing party
pushed the measure through Parliament at last month and it took
effect 4 days later.
The restrictions
outraged business people and bankers, who say they repeat the currency
controls that ruined neighboring Venezuela, a rare regional supporter of
Mr. Bouterse. To repudiate the new limits, they brought commerce to a
screeching stop.
“What has happened
cannot and will not be tolerated,” said the Association of Surinamese
Industry and the Association of Surinamese Manufacturers, which called
on its members to strike in a joint statement. One of Suriname’s biggest
food companies, Fernandes Group, closed most of its businesses on
Wednesday, provoking a run on bread.
The
new measure made black market currency transactions punishable by up to
three years in prison, and created a militia to stamp out illicit
trading. But even as these measures were rolled out on, the cost
of a dollar on the black market jumped to double the official rate as
Surinamese rushed to get the scarce hard currency.
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