£138 MILLION BUDGET DEFICIT:

  • Printer friendly view
 Friday, May 21, 2021 - 10:55

Finances decimated by pandemic, coinciding with potential hard Brexit

by FABIAN PICARDO ,
Chief Minister

*From statement in Parliament

The Government has published the Appropriation Bill 2021.The House will have a chance to debate the Bill in Budget Session which will be held in July this year.
The Bill published provides for an estimated consolidated fund expenditure in this financial year of £665 million (£664,692,000) and capital expenditure of £68m (£67,640,000).
These are now published figures.


The heads on which the spending is provided for are set out in the Bill in detail.
Honourable Members have also already received the Draft Estimates of Expenditure.
That book contains all details of the estimate for Government spending for the year already gone, which was an exceptional 24 month year as approved by this House unanimously.
The book also contains the estimated spending for the year to come.
Honourable Members are bound not to disclose the figures in that Estimates Book until the debate commences.
I would therefore not usually say any more at this stage.
But, this year is an exceptional year.
And it is an exceptional year for every country in the world.
Let us not kid ourselves.
COVID did not just come to Gibraltar.
The pandemic did not just happen to us.
And the public finances of EVERY nation on the planet are in a deplorable state as a result.
Because the public finances of EVERY nation have been decimated by the COVID Pandemic.
And let us not forget that, in our case,the pandemic has coincided also with the run up to a potential hard Brexit, something which undoubtedly hit business confidence in some sectors.
And so, as the Bill is published, I consider, that it is my duty to immediately inform our people today of what the effect has been on Gibraltar’s public finances of the published details of the COVID fund and the COVID borrowing which all members of the House supported.
I will limit myself to setting out the deficit position.

MORE IN PANORAMA PRINT EDITION

21-05-21 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR