NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Minister of Economic Affairs Michael Halkitis indicated yesterday that The Bahamas is on course for an economic rebound as he pointed to increase economic activity, consumer spending and increased value-added tax collections for the first quarter of 2022.
During the Office of the Prime Minister’s weekly briefing, the minister said The Bahamas recently updated the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank on its fiscal position.
“The prognosis for economic recovery appears good,” Halkitis said.
“The World Bank is forecasting that the economy will grow by eight percent this year and that is up from a forecast of six percent: eight percent this year and just over four percent next year.
“We were able to engage with a number of financial institutions to apprise them of our progress in terms of our economic performance and the performance of the financials and generally speaking it was a very positive exchange with all the meetings that we had.
“In terms of themes coming out of the meetings, of course, everybody is concerned about the levels of inflation that are impacting economies around the world and as well the issue of climate change was high on the agenda and how countries, particularly small vulnerable countries such as ourselves are impacted and what we can do to mitigate and minimize and combat the effects of climate change.”
According to Halkitis, there was a commitment from these institutions to provide expertise, funding to conduct research, and convening meetings of the various countries to devise and execute a coordinated approach.
The current fiscal year will end June 30.
Halkitis noted that revenue has performed well, coming in a $1.8 billion, which represents 78 percent of the government’s target for the total fiscal period.
“We’re trending ahead in terms of revenue,” he said.
“In terms of expenditure, we’re slightly down from our target, three percent down.
“And in terms of the deficit, it’s currently showing just under $345 million for the first nine months and we had forecasted $850 million for the entire year, so we are ahead of schedule because mostly the revenue is performing very well and we are so far have been able to keep a very good reign on the expenditure.”
