Budget to be ready before September, Measures to re-activate economy being considered- Finance Minister

Georgetown: The first National Budget of the APNU+AFC Coalition Government is on track to be presented before the start of September. This is according to Minister of Finance Winston Jordan. Jordan declined to give details but explained that, “We are looking at a package of revenue and expenditure measures that even in this short period of time can result in the stimulation of the economy.”  While the Minister does not fully support that a stimulus “to the extent that some people are touting” is needed, he said Government clearly has to “go to the sources of the slowdown in the economy.” Jordan explained that the slowdown in the economy started since 2014. “You will find at the last budget, the last minister was projecting 5.2% growth…well we didn’t get that kind of growth. In a sense that is a slowdown…,”he said. According to the Finance Minister, the prorogation of the National Assembly also created an impact on the economy as, “Any businessman watching that activity would tend to hold back on investment decisions, because of the uncertainty that was being created.” He stated too that the uncertainty created by the PPP’s initial refusal to accept the results of the polls also fuelled economic uncertainties. “A further period of angst and uncertainty would have been created,” he said adding that, “given these circumstances, no investor, foreign or local, is going to want to come in, in that whole period of uncertainty.” The financial expert emphasised that one of the key factors to attract investment is a stable governance framework or a stable political environment. “You ought to know that when there is political upheaval, everybody will pack and run and once that happens, it takes time to rebuild the confidence in the economy. You can’t blame a two month old government for slowdown in the economy,” Jordan said. According to the Finance Minister, “policies must be developed to reactivate the economy, to push it back, and those policies must be a combination of monetary and fiscal inputs along with confidence-building, to get businessmen back in to producing and consumers in to the habit of spending”. With regard to the presentation of the National Budget to the National Assembly for approval, the Finance Minister said, “That will be done well in advance of the due date…before September.”