Under strong opposition, the Barbados government went to Parliament Tuesday to secure a US$65 million loan from the international capital market to shore up the country's foreign reserves.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Affairs Mia Mottley said the loan, which is being secured through the United States-based Duetsche Bank Securities Inc., would not affect the country's debt position since it was less than debt being retired.

"In the 1990s the country's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to debt ratio was 29.1 per cent of the GDP, with this loan the debt will be 26.8 per cent,"' she said, noting that Owen Arthur-administration had taken a decision not to worsen the country's debt ratio by borrowing above what the country was able to service.

"We have never once defaulted on one loan. We have never once asked anyone to reschedule debt because we cannot pay. The debt is more than serviceable," Mottley said as she piloted the resolution seeking parliamentary approval for the local through the House of Assembly.

The senior government minister said Barbados' international debt was among the lowest in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) with only oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas having a better rate.

However, in a fiery address, shadow Minister of Finance, opposition parliamentarian Dr. David Estwick, charged that the Owen Arthur administration was pushing the country further down a debt trap.

Estwick said there were serious macro imbalances in the Barbadian economy and rather than seek to address these issues, government was seeking to borrow its way out of the situation.

He said such a policy cannot help solve critical problems such as inflation which he said has spiraled out of control in recent times.

In her recent overview of the performance of the Barbados economy, Central Bank Governor Dr Marion Williams said the net international reserves declined by BDS$103.7 million (US$51.8 million) over the first nine months of the year to stand at BDS$1.1 billion (US$550 million).

She, however aid this was not cause for concern as the country still had reserves to cover 21.5 weeks of imports, well about the international benchmark of 12 weeks.