In accepting the chairmanship, Prime Minister Douglas pledged the Council’s support in maintaining a strong and stable currency within the ECCB member countries. He emphasised that the goal of fiscal stabilisation and adjustment is debt reduction, which was a common goal shared by members of the Currency Union. He said that the Monetary Council was the appropriate avenue through which joint strategies could be developed to achieve debt reduction throughout the region.

Outgoing chairman Honourable Margaret Annie Dyer-Howe of Montserrat, in her remarks urged member governments to manage their budgets in a manner that would reduce current deficits and maintain sustainable levels of debt. She also identified the need for restructuring the economies of the member countries to ensure greater levels of productivity and improved quality of life for the people of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.

Attending the ceremony were the Governor General of St Kitts and Nevis, Sir Cuthbert Sebastian, local ministers of government, members of the ECCB’s Monetary Council and Board of Directors, and representatives from the commercial banks and the private sector.