Minister of Economic Affairs, Sen. Hon. Michael Halkitis spoke on the country’s fiscal performance at a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister this week. The minister expressed optimism about the country exceeding fiscal expectations.
“Over the twelve months of our budget year from July 1st to June 30th the revenues and the expenditure are not equally distributed. So for example, historically, we have collected most of our revenue in the first half of the calendar year, second half of the fiscal year. So that period between January and June, that is when the bulk of the revenue is collected. In this year we’ve had some very very heavy expenditure commitments, spending that had to be done in October as well as December mainly related to the debt obligations. So the point I’m wishing to make here is that this period that we’re now in is the time when we will see the bulk of the revenue come in. We’ve also seen those heavy commitments taken care of so the spending will not be as much. So we should see and even better budget performance during the second half of the year.”
Minister Halkitis made these comments one day after Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Hon. Philip Davis delivered the mid-year budget communication in the House of Assembly.
