WILEMSTAD/PHILIPSBURG — It appears that the planned introduction of the Caribbean guilder for Curaçao and St. Maarten in 2012 is dropped until next year. The government intends to arrange with Curaçao to continue the use of the Antillean guilder.

At the opening of the States’ year 2011-2012 on St. Maarten, Governor Eugene Holiday declared one recommended sustaining these arrangements in 2012, thus giving the branch of the Central Bank on St. Maarten the chance to take root and make a precise analysis of the possibilities for a currency.

Since the dismantlement of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10^th 2010, the two countries within the Kingdom continued using the Antillean guilder that is linked to the dollar as legal tender. Expectations were that the arrangement would continue until the Caribbean guilder is put into circulation next year.

Holiday explained that the organization of the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten encountered serious delays. For St. Maarten this meant that the intended completely equipped branch of the Central Bank on the island would not be realized yet and that no further concerted steps were taken for a common currency.