• Fiscal deficit to zip to Hurricane Gilbert level

The fiscal deficit could zip to a record high of $132.0 billion or 12.2 per cent of the total value of all final goods and services produced this year — Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This deficit, a measurement of the difference between the amount of money which the government acquires from revenue and grants and that which it spends on wages, salaries, interest charges and capital works, would be the highest since Hurricane Gilbert, which wreaked havoc on the country in 1988, forcing the government to spend significant sums to rehabilitate its infrastructure.

This assessment is based on the fiscal deficit of $99.2 billion or 9.2 per cent, which translates to $11.0 billion per month, recorded during the period April to December of this fiscal year.

Data released by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service indicate that the government’s revenue shortfall zipped to $25.0 billion or at a rate of  $2.8 billion per month.

A total of $205.5 billion or $22.8 billion was taken in per month during the period, while a total of $231.0 or $25.66 billion per month was programmed by beleaguered Finance Minister, Audley Shaw.

This forced the government to cut its spending to $304.7 billion or average of $33.8 billion per month, down from the $309.2 billion, $34.35 billion per month. The beleaguered administration spent $132.8 billion or $14.7 billion per month on interest charges. This amount was $8.9 billion more than projected for.

Meanwhile, a total of $94.1 billion or $10.45 billion was spent on wages and salaries and this was roughly in line with the amount programme by the cash-strapped administration.

However, despite this reduction in expenditure, the fiscal deficit zipped to $99.2 billion or 9.25 per cent of GDP, $21.00 billion more that the $78.2 billion budgeted for by minister Shaw and his technical team.

The revenue shortfall also forced the government to borrow $24.8 billion more than the $176.6 billion budgeted by the administration.

A total of $188.0 billion was raked in from the domestic market and $13.2 billion from the external market.

The administration used $103.1 billion to repay existing loans and the remainder to help fund the budget. A total of $83.1 billion was used to repay maturing domestic and $20.0 billion to amortise maturing external debts. The overall deficit – central government plus the select group of public sector companies — stood at $856.2 million $1.1 billion higher than the surplus $226.2 million projected.

Meanwhile, the primary balance, which measures the extent to which the government was curtailing spending on basic social services in order to pay the debt, was$33.5 billion, $12.1 billion less than expected.­