ROSEAU, Dominica – Dominica registered economic growth of 4.7 per cent last year, marking the third consecutive growth the island has achieved with Finance Minister Dr. Irving McIntyre that this year and at least 4.3 percent in 2025.
Delivering the EC$1.7 billion budget to Parliament last Friday, McIntyre said irrespective of the challenges, the current administration has remained steadfast is in its mission to manage the recovery. Debate on the budget begins on Monday.
He said the International Monetary Fund(IMF) reported that while the world economy grew by an estimated 3.2 per cent in 2023, Dominica’s economy saw growth of 4.7 per cent during that same period. T
“This performance is being driven by the government’s ambitious public sector investment program, robust wholesale and retail trade, a steady rebound in tourism and increased agricultural production.”
McIntyre said that the IMF has indicated that global inflation is expected to decrease from an average of 6.8 per cent in 2023 to 5.9 per cent in 2024 and 4.5 per cent in 2025.
“Historically, Dominica’s inflation has remained below global levels due to the substitutional effects of local production and consumption. Therefore, according to the IMF, inflation in Dominica was lower than the global level averaging 3.5 per cent in 2023 and it is expected to continue falling to an average of 2.8 per cent in 2024.
“We are encouraged by the results of the IMF’s assessment of the performance of the economy, and we do hope that this downward trajectory in inflation will be reflected in the cost of goods on supermarket shelves.”
He told legislators that in respect of the government’s fiscal performance, preliminary data indicates that there has been a further improvement.
“The primary balance shifted from a deficit of 0.8 per cent at the end of June 2023 to a surplus of 0.6 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) as of June 30, 2024. This is mainly due to a favourable economic climate which impacted positively on tax revenues, and deliberate action by Government to contain and manage recurrent expenditure.”
McIntyre said tax revenues increased by 3.1 per cent over the previous year while recurrent expenditure declined by three per cent.
He said although tax revenues are expected to increase further by 3.3 per cent a primary deficit of 8.7 per cent is forecasted for Fiscal Year 2024/2025, mainly due to a significant rise in capital expenditure for agriculture, digitalization, housing, the Roseau Enhancement Project, and the East Coast Road.
But McIntyre said beyond this fiscal year, as these projects come to an end and capital expenditure reduces and “we expect improvements in fiscal balances as revenues continue to grow”.
He said that there has also been a 2.4 per cent increase in total disbursed outstanding debt compared to the previous year.
The Finance Minister said Central Government’s debt is estimated at EC$1,507.4 million, while government-guaranteed debt is estimated at EC$140.3 million.
He said total debt to GDP is estimated to be 89.4 per cent, with Central Government debt to GDP at 81.7 per cent.
