2020 Annual Economic and Financial Review

2020 Annual Economic and Financial Review

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

A current account deficit of $104.2m (2.7 per cent GDP) was recorded while government’s primary deficit deteriorated to $105.3m (2.8 per cent of GDP) from $56.0m (1.3 per cent of GDP) in 2019.

Investment (CBI) Programme, which plunged by 31.5 per cent ($35.3m) to $76.9m relative to the preceding year. expenditure contracted by 8.9 per cent to $850.1m (22.3 per cent of GDP), reflecting reduced expenditure on all major expenditure items, most notably goods and services (23.2 per cent) and interest payments (16.1 per cent). There was an 18.5 per cent ($16.1m) expansion in government’s capital investment programme totaling $103.3m for the year, due to increased health and pandemic-related spending. Despite the $2.2m increase from the preceding year, capital revenue remained low at $5.3m. The total disbursed outstanding public sector debt climbed by 4.5 per cent to $3,576.2m (93.6 per cent of GDP) at the end of 2020 from $3,423.7m (76.3 per cent of GDP) in 2019. The increase in public sector indebtedness reflected a 6.0 per cent rise in outstanding central government debt to $3,084.7m, which was tempered by a 4.2 per cent decline in the outstanding debt of public corporations to $491.5m. Meanwhile, current

Antigua & Barbuda Public Finance (EC$M)

1000.0

800.0

600.0

400.0

200.0

0.0

(200.0)

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Current Revenue Current Expenditure Current Balance (before grants) Capital Expenditure

Reflecting the impact of hotel closures and limited commercial activity in the first half of the year, current revenue declined by 11.8 per cent ($100.2m) to $745.9m, (19.5 per cent of GDP). Of this total, tax revenue amounted to $610.1m (16.0 per cent of GDP), which marked a fall of 9.3 per cent ($62.2m) from the prior year. The outturn reflected declines in the yield from all major tax segments with the exception of taxes on income and profits, which rose by 10.3 per cent. Meanwhile, the intake from non-tax sources totaled $135.8m (3.5 per cent of GDP), a 21.9 per cent ($38.0m) decline relative to 2019. This falloff was driven by lower receipts from the Citizenship-by-

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