BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – St. Kitts-Nevis has hit the economic charts with a promising outlook this year, as the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) predicts an overall surplus for the small twin-island state.
This projection was made last Friday (Sep. 18) at the sixth special meeting of the ECCB Monetary Council. After assessing the fiscal performances of the countries within the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), Council gave updates for its Member Countries.
According to the report: “An improvement in the fiscal operations of the Federal government is expected in 2009, based on the outturn in the first five months of the year, and likely developments in revenue collections and expenditure for the rest of this year. A consolidated overall fiscal surplus of $39.0 million (2.4% GDP) is projected for 2009.”
This projection comes as good news for the Federation after obtaining a 4.6% growth in 2008, slightly above the 4.2 % achieved in 2007. The growth in 2008, according to the St. Kitts-Nevis country paper, was led by expansions in agriculture and construction, two of the sectors that have been hit hard during the current economic crisis.
Commenting on the report, Minister of Finance Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris said he is confident, based on the “favourable” and “strong” showing during the first half of the year, that the overall surplus predicted at the end of the year can be achieved, although the second half of the year portends to be slower than the first half.
Since the global recession began in 2008, the nation’s economy has suffered from the prolonged closure of the Four Seasons Hotel, the loss of high per capita tourist expenditure associated with the Four Seasons client base, the collapse of the C L Financial Group, a reduction in remittances and drop in stay over visitors.
Notwithstanding the significant challenges, Harris explained that aggressive revenue collection and expenditure containment the Federation has been able to achieve its best fiscal outturn to date.
“The fiscal performance of the country for the first six months of 2009 was an excellent best ever, notwithstanding the impact of the global economic and financial crisis on the economy of St Kitts and Nevis,” Harris stated in a press release issued by his office yesterday (Sep. 24).
“Should we achieve our projected overall fiscal surplus, we would be the best performing country in the OECS on the fiscal account, despite a fall in the level of economic activity, particularly in tourism and building construction in 2009,” Harris added.
The ECCB Monetary Council noted that while St Kitts and Nevis is projecting a surplus, other countries such as Anguilla, Antigua, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are recording deficits ranging from EC $59.2 million to EC $209 million for 2009.
The country report has not been made available to the public for scrutiny.
