ST. LUCIA: The Sitting of the House of Assembly for the debate on the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure 2016/2017 began April 28th at 9 a.m.
Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Kenny D. Anthony delivered a detailed overview of the EC$1,426, 295, 500.00 budget for the 2016/2017 period. This year’s budget is a reduction from last year’s EC$1,464, 236,000.000, in effect, a reduction of approximately EC$37 million.
In his opening remarks the Prime Minister stated that Saint Lucia’s economy had, in the past year, exhibited signs of recovery.
The current estimates of revenue and expenditure comes against a background where the Saint Lucian economy showed signs of recovery in 2015 after a weak performance over the previous three years. The statement comes from the Social and Economic Review. According to the review quote: “rare GDP growth was recorded at 1. 2 percent fueled by improved performance in the transport, construction, and agriculture sectors. The change in growth is mostly supported by increases in output of manufacturing, utilities and the wholesale and distribution sector.
The Prime Minister went on to comment that the overall impact of the budget includes an indication of a narrowing of the country’s deficit.
The budget forecasts a narrowing of the overall deficit from EC$130.4 million or 3.4 percent of GDP to EC$128.8 million or 3.2 percent of GDP. While this is a notable achievement, there is still much more required to be done to reduce the deficit to a sustainable level – one that will bring our borrowing requirements down to a minimum.
