Education received the largest share of the 2023/24 Budget for recurrent programs outside of debt payments and compensation of employees. A sum of $142.9 billion is earmarked for the sector in the upcoming fiscal year, representing approximately 22 percent of the $657.2 billion for non-debt recurrent expenditure. Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, provided […]
China announced Sunday a 7.2% increase in its defense budget for the coming year, up slightly from last year’s 7.1% rate of increase. That marks the eighth consecutive year of single-digit percentage point increases in what is now the world’s second-largest military budget. The 2023 figure was given as 1.55 trillion yuan ($224 billion), roughly double the figure from 2013. […]
Jamaica’s Government made history with a trillion-dollar national budget set for the fiscal year 2023/24. Finance and Public Service Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke tabled the historic Estimates of Expenditure for the fiscal year 2023/24 in the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon. The budget’s largest single item of expenditure is the $338 billion for wages and salaries for public sector employees. […]
President Joe Biden revealed a $6 trillion national budget proposal for the 2022 fiscal year on Friday. The budget released by the White House combines three major spending proposals already announced by Biden: the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan and $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2022. The budget will be focused on […]
Canada’s federal government plans to spend a hefty sum of $100 billion in the coming months to aid the recovery of its economy. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in announcement discloses that the economic relief package is the largest by the country since the Second World War. The spending will put the deficit to a historic high of $381.6 billion by […]
The government has set aside $345 million this year to remove zinc fences from certain communities. Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke underscored the importance of the budgetary allocation while opening the debate on the first supplementary estimates of expenditure for 2020/2021. “It is just not right that in 2021 or 2020, we have major thoroughfares or Washington Boulevard on both […]
The United States is looking to borrow a record US$3 trillion in the second quarter of the year. The country’s economy and budget have taken a battering because of the crisis brought on by COVID-19. The sum is more than five times the previous quarterly record, set at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. In all of 2019, the […]
Jamaica’s 2019/2020 budget is set to increase by over $50 billion. This was revealed in the first Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure tabled recently in the House of Representatives. More than $40 billion is for recent debt payments which will result in the country saving billions annually. The allocation of the remaining $10 billion will go towards education, national security, community […]
Peter Bunting, the Shadow Minister of Industry, Commerce, and Competitiveness, has touted the role that he foresees the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) playing in Jamaica’s economy. Bunting, in his presentation in the 2018-2019 Sectoral Debate, posited that “The MSME sector has to become the catalyst for the development and inclusive growth of the private sector.” “The MSME sector […]
Executive Director of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), Dr. Damien King, has lauded the Government for presenting a “responsible” $835.2-billion Budget for the 2019/20 fiscal year. Dr. King noted that the Budget outlined by Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke recently is a step in the right direction. “It is consistent with continued debt […]
