Suriname celebrates Keti Koti 🎆

and we take a deeper look at Suriname's economic crisis over the past few years.

De Brief
July 03, 2023

Suriname, this year celebrates 160 years of the end of slavery under Dutch colonial rule. However, while the enslaved people were “free,“ they had to continue to work on a contract basis under former slaveholders in a “transition period“ for 10 years until 1873.
The ending of slavery, lead to the beginning of large numbers of migrant labourers from China and from India to come to Suriname to replace the former slaves on the plantations.
This year, as the country celebrates 160 years of Keti Koti, the Dutch King has apologised for the role of the Netherlands in the horrors of slavery in Suriname and its other colonies such as Indonesia and Curacao.
The Netherlands has recently begun reconsidering the country’s role in slavery in its colonial history in the recent years with Prime Minister Rutte apologising for the country’s role in the slave trade in 2022.
This comes at a time when studies by Dutch institutes are looking at the history of the king’s family, the House of Orange-Nassau and their profiting from slavery.
A recent study found that the royal family profited to the amount of around $600 million dollars between 1675 to 1770.

As of May 2023, Suriname’s inflation was at 64.9% compared to May 2022.
Here, we take a deeper look at the economic crisis over the years that caused this large inflationary hike and the country’s economic woes.
Suriname received a lot of low-interest loans over the years from Chinese creditors as well as other private creditors.
As Suriname attempted to restructure its debt, it was caught in a geopolitical conflict between the IMF and other lenders. The country was stuck waiting for funding as the lenders, the IMF, and Chinese lenders decided independently on how to assist the country.
As a consequence, the Surinamese population took a heavy burden as the government continued to pay a heavy financial price in providing aid.
When the Alcoa aluminum plant shut down in 2016, the plant was getting electricity from the Afobakadam which provided cheap electricity to the population. As the plant shut down, the cheap electricity increased and prices were subsidised by the government at the time.
While the government went to the IMF for funding at that time, they agreed on a rescue package but after receiving the first installment, decided to borrow around $1.5 billion from other creditors, much were from Chinese creditors.

The country managed for a while before the pandemic which caused a crash in commodities prices, of which gold is a primary source for Surinamese exports.
The economy shrunk and the currency lost 80% of its value. This led to rising import costs, so gas prices rose and prices of staple foods.
As the costs of debt repayment rose to around 25% of the country’s GDP, less spending went to other places, like healthcare. The government eventually returned to the IMF and agreed to a deal with private lenders that saw them receive proceeds from future oil revenues in the country.
The country continues to struggle under these repayment agreements as the salaries of many workers in Suriname, 35% of which work for the government are forced to bear the brunt of the economic crisis burdened on the country.
This deeper examination gives light to the plight of a country reliant on lending from outside dealing with multiple hits on the economy over the years that it is now struggling to climb out of.