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2018 Annual Economic and Financial Review
MONTSERRAT
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74
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
hike in spending on goods and services to
$50.1m, as the government reconciled and
brought up to date most of its contributions for
regional obligations. The spending on this line
item accounted for 38.6 per cent of current
expenditure in 2018. Additionally, there was
an increase in outlays for transfer and
subsidies of 16.4 per cent ($4.9m) to $35.1m,
as the ferry service had normal operations
during the year along with an increase in
Medivacs
9 .Outlays on personal emoluments
went up by 2.4 per cent ($1.0m) to $44.6m in
2018.
Current revenue rose by 6.9 per cent to
$50.3m (30.0 per cent of GDP), compared
with an increase of 0.1 per cent to $47.1m
(28.4 per cent of GDP) in 2017. This
development was largely because of an
increase in tax revenue, which rose by
7.1 per cent to $44.4m (26.5 per cent of
GDP). The main driver of the increase in tax
revenue was the higher collections from taxes
on income of $1.4m, largely because of a
$0.4m uptake in personal income tax. Other
categories also recorded an increase in tax
receipts, in particular international trade and
transaction ($1.0m) and domestic goods and
9
Medivacs is a social programme in the Ministry of Health that pays for medical emergencies for citizen who have to be
flown out of Montserrat.
services ($0.6m). The growth in tax revenue
was partly offset by a decline in receipts from
taxes on property ($0.04m).
Current grants receipts rose by 2.0 per cent to
$78.0m (46.4 per cent of GDP) compared
with inflows of $76.5m (47.2 per cent of
GDP) in 2017, due to increased external
financial support for recurrent expenditure
from the United Kingdom. However, total
grant receipts contracted to $82.1m, stemming
from a 72.6 per cent decline in capital grants
to $4.1m in 2018.
Capital expenditure fell by 16.8 per cent to
$13.4m (8.0 per cent of GDP) in 2018,
compared with $16.1m (10.0 per cent of
GDP) in the prior year. This fall in capital
expenditure is directly related to delays in the
implementation of various public sector
infrastructural projects.
The stock of public sector external debt
stood at $10.1m (6.3 per cent of GDP) at the
end of December 2018, compared with a
balance of $10.5m (6.5 per cent of GDP)
recorded at the end of December 2017.
The
decrease in debt stock is attributable to the