Davis: Plans to restore country’s fiscal health are working
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Prime Minister Philip Davis yesterday asserted that his administration’s plans to restore the country’s fiscal health are working, arguing that it was “simply not feasible” to table the Fiscal Strategy Report last November as required by law.
Davis delivered his communication in Parliament yesterday on the Fiscal Strategy Report.
He noted that there were “fundamental flaws” in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, including the timeline of having the Fiscal Strategy Report tabled in Parliament on the third Wednesday of November each year.
The Opposition as recently as last week slammed the Davis administration for what it described as “contempt for the rule of law and the Bahamian people” by failing to publish the Fiscal Strategy Report.
Explaining the delay, Davis said: “During the fiscal year 2022/23, the FRA would have required government to table its Fiscal Strategy report in Parliament on November 16, 2022. This date, Madam Speaker, was simply not feasible, for at this time The Bahamas was in the middle of its S&P bi-annual credit rating review. Tabling such a document would have interfered with the independent review process.”
Davis noted that the results of the S&P review were not released until November 22, 2022.
“This event was very significant for our country as for the first time in almost a decade, positive signs were observed in The Bahamas’ credit rating,” he continued.
“While the S&P rating did not provide an improved credit rating for The Bahamas, it did provide for an improvement in the credit outlook from negative to stable. I point this out to emphasize that this constitutes a reversal of the country’s deteriorating credit position. Our plans to restore the country’s fiscal health are working,” Davis said.
The Prime Minister noted that the 2022 Fiscal Strategy Report outlines the Government’s plans to achieve specific fiscal targets including an improvement in Government revenue yield to more than 24 percent of GDP by fiscal year 2024/25; a measured reduction in Government expenditure to less than 23 percent of GDP by fiscal year 2024/25; and, as a result of these measures, achievement of a budget surplus by fiscal year 2024/25.
Davis said that the fiscal plans implemented by this administration since coming to office are already bearing fruit and as a result, the public can expect the achievement of a budget surplus by fiscal year 2024/25; and a decline in the debt to GDP ratio to 67.1 percent by fiscal year 2026/27.
