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2018 Annual Economic and Financial Review
SAINT LUCIA
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100
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
Receipts from taxes on international trade and
transactions grew by 7.5 per cent to $351.4m
(6.9 per cent of GDP), primarily reflecting
increases in the collections from the airport
tax ($14.2m), the service charge ($4.9m), the
excise tax on imports ($3.8m) and the import
duty ($3.6m). Yields from taxes on income
and profits increased by 4.4 per cent to
$265.4m (5.2 per cent of GDP), compared
with growth of 1.0 per cent to $254.2m
(5.2 per cent of GDP) recorded in the year
before. This improvement was largely
associated with growth of 26.8 per cent
($6.2m) from the withholding tax, 4.6 per cent
($4.9m) in inflows from the individual income
tax and 10.5 per cent ($4.2m) from arrears.
Revenue from taxes on domestic goods and
services was 1.8 per cent ($7.0m) above the
collections from 2017, attributable largely to
greater yields from the value added tax
(VAT), supported by the intake from stamp
duties. The VAT, which constitutes
82.3 per cent of tax receipts on domestic
goods and services, grew by 4.3 per cent
($13.5m), in contrast to a decline of 9.4 per
cent ($32.6m) posted in the year prior. As a
percentage of GDP, the revenue from VAT
remained relatively unchanged at 6.4 per cent.
An increase of $4.7m was noted for the yield
from stamp duties. By contrast, receipts from
the property tax fell by 14.8 per cent to record
a total of $10.8m in the year under review.
The total disbursed outstanding debt of the
public sector was estimated at $3,340.0m at
the end of 2018, representing an increase of
5.0 per cent over the total at the end of
December 2017
. As a percentage of GDP,
the outstanding debt increased marginally to
65.9 per cent from 65.1 per cent at the end of
the previous year. Overall growth in public
sector debt was largely the consequence of an
increase in central government’s borrowing.
Central government’s debt, which accounted
for 94.1 per cent of the total debt stock, grew
by 5.5 per cent to $3,144.6m (62.1 per cent
of GDP), reflecting increased domestic
borrowing. The stock of domestic debt of the
central government rose by 11.4 per cent
($161.1m), while its external debt inched up
(0.1 per cent) to $1,575.3m. On the contrary,
preliminary estimates of the outstanding debt
of the public corporations indicated a
contraction of 2.4 per cent to $195.4m. The
debt service payments increased by
25.3 per cent to $886.1m, influenced
primarily by growth of 22.1 per in principal
payments, as government paid off some debt
obligations.