Bahamas: Christie presents budget renews pledge reduce gov’t expenditure

Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie has presented a US$2.1 billion budget to parliament outlining a number of revenue measures and warning that the administration cannot afford to spend more than it receives.

The prime minister told legislators that the Recurrent Expenditure is estimated at US$1.8 billion, an increase of US$103 million from the previous year.

According to Christie, the increase reflects a number of factors including:
– debt servicing requirements next year will increase by US$40 million from this fiscal year,
– debt redemption will increase by more than US$10 million.

However, Christie said the recurrent provisions have also been supplemented by reclassified amounts from the capital budget and that the new measure would explain another US$30 million of the Recurrent Expenditure increase in 2014/15.

Christie said regarding Capital Expenditure, his administration is adhering to its commitment to reduce its weight relative to the size of the economy over the medium term, to a more usual level of three per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The Christie administration insists that it is on track to growing the economy to a targeted level of 3 percent of GDP whilst balancing the budget – a key promise during his campaign ahead of the elections that swept him and his party – the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) to power 2 years ago.