Belize City- According to the Monthly Economic highlights report from the Central Bank of Belize, during the first 10 months (April to January) of the 2017/2018 fiscal year, Central Government’s revenues rose by 1.1% to $891.7mn, while expenditure fell by 2.2% to $936.3mn.
Consequently, the primary balance swung from a deficit of 0.01% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to a surplus of 0.9% of GDP, while the overall deficit narrowed from 2.2% of GDP to 1.2% of GDP, when compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.
The financing gap was funded mainly from domestic sources.
While the narrowing of the deficit sounds like good news, total public-sector debt rose by 0.5% to $3,557.1 million and stood at 92.5% of GDP at the end of February.
Central Government’s domestic debt rose by 2.1% to $1,047.6 million, while the public sector external debt dipped by 0.1% to $2,509.6 million.