JAMAICA-Government Reveals Trillion Dollar Budget for 2024/2025 Fiscal Year.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Andrew Holness administration on Thursday revealed that it is projecting to spend $1.3 trillion One Jamaica dollar=US$0.008 cents) during the 2024/2025 fiscal year that gets underway on April 1.

Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke tabled the Estimates of Expenditure in the House of Representatives on Thursday afternoon, reflecting a slight increase over the $1.26 trillion budget for the current fiscal year.

Clarke said the budget would be financed by revenue and grant receipts totaling $1 trillion and loans and another financing of $0.3 trillion.

“Jamaica’s national budget is now firmly in the trillion-dollar range with total expenditure and payments for fiscal year 2024/2025 estimated at $1.3 trillion.”

The Finance Minister added that the Government has a maturing debt of $317 billion in 2024, an amount included in the expenditure figure. This compares with the $125 billion which matured in 2023.

He also highlighted that non-debt expenditure of approximately $849.9 billion is 10.9 percent higher than the non-debt expenditure of $765.8 billion in the Fourth Supplementary Estimates for 2023-2024.

“Contributing to the $1.3 trillion expenditure profile are non-debt recurrent expenditure of $769.9 billion, capital expenditure of $80 billion, and debt service of $491.2 billion. Non-debt recurrent expenditure includes an allocation for recurrent program expenses at $327.8 billion and compensation expenses at $442 billion. The compensation allocation includes an estimated amount to conclude the implementation phase of the restructured compensation system during the fiscal year,” he said.

Public sector wages and salaries are projected to represent 12.6 percent of gross domestic product in the 2024/25 fiscal year, up from 9.2 percent in the 2019/20 fiscal year.

“It is obvious that the government has made a concerted effort to address the historical challenges in public sector compensation, and now it is time to consolidate,” Clarke remarked.

“As a country, we need to be careful to ensure that sufficient resources are left for growth-inductive capital expenditure for programs that can enhance Jamaica’s human capital and for social expenditure on behalf of the more vulnerable members of the Jamaican society.”

The Standing Finance Committee of Parliament will review the 2024/25 Estimates of Expenditure from March 5-7.