Antigua and Barbuda Grapples with US $220M Deficit Amid Revenue Rises

The Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda last week met with a high-level nine-member team from the Ministry of Finance in a significant step towards the assessment of the fiscal health of the nation. The cabinet announced the government to be at a deficit of US $220 m.

This team consisted of the Financial Secretary, Deputy Financial Secretary, Accountant General, Deputy Commissioner of the Inland Revenue Department, Comptroller of Customs, and the Debt Manager. The key financial officials presented a very detailed report on the country’s revenues, expenditures, and overall treasury status.

There are encouraging trends in government revenue generation from the report. “From January to June of 2023, revenues totaled a little more than 500 million dollars,” one official noted. For the same period in 2024, on the other hand, “Revenues climbed to almost 560 million dollars.”

This is an impressive rise in revenues that illustrates a government working extra hard to improve economic activities and enhance better fiscal management.

However, in view of this optimistic revenue-earning situation, the general financial health did not reflect such a bright picture. They said that the government expenditure “went beyond 780 million dollars during the same period,” thereby increasing the government outflow substantially.

This huge outlay, coming out from various socio-economic programs and works related to infrastructure, ultimately translated into an alarming deficit.

According to the Cabinet, “It is a gap between our revenue and expenditure that creates a deficit of just more than 220 million dollars.” Such a fiscal imbalance reflects the difficulties the government of Antigua and Barbuda must face in the rational balancing of revenue growth and proper management of expenditures.

The Cabinet has already realized the extent of the deficit and agrees of the need to curb it. The cabinet has already deliberated on some options to decrease the excessiveness that would not compromise service to the public and projects of development among them included are augment the efficiency of tax collection, control of un-precedent expenditures and provide a search for alternative sources of revenue.

The government remains relentless in its pursuit of improved fiscal health toward sustainable economic growth through prudent financial management. There was a call at the meeting for continuous monitoring and adjustment of fiscal policies toward successful navigation in the complex environment.