Government to seek approval for EC $1.85 billion Estimates for 2025 

By Admin. Updated 5:22 p.m., Wednesday, January 8, 2025, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4). 

Government will seek approval for 1.85 billion dollars, when they present the 2025 Estimates in Parliament on Thursday, the Agency For Public Information (API) announced today (January 8).

“Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said the Estimates for 2025 has seen an increase of approximately 235 million dollars over the Estimates of 2024,” the API said in a press release.

“The 2024 approved Estimates was 1.6 billion dollars and after the passage of Hurricane Beryl, there was a supplementary budget, which carried the total to approximately 1.99 billion dollars,” the release stated.

Meanwhile the government announced that on January 13, 2025, the Budget Debate will begin when the Minister of Finance introduces the Appropriation Bill.

“At the conclusion of the Budget Debate later next week, it is anticipated that the Appropriation Bill will be approved, then assented to by the Governor General, and published in the Gazette as the law of the land, through which the government’s plans for 2025 will be financed and implemented. The ULP government is thus already busy at work with its legislation agenda on the country’s fiscal operations for 2025,” the Office of the Prime Minister said in an article released today.

“The Summary of the Estimates and the Appropriation Bill before the House shows an overall Budget for 2025 of EC $1.85 billion, of which EC $917.64 million is earmarked for recurrent expenditure, for the Sinking Fund Contribution, and EC $696.34 million for capital expenditure. The Budget is funded by EC $907.7 million from Current Revenue (Tax and Non-Tax Revenue), Capital Receipts, (Grant, Loans, Capital Revenue, and Other Receipts) of EC $943.66 million,” the article stated.

“Last year, due to Hurricane Beryl, the total Budget was revised upwards from the approved estimates of EC $1.62 billion to EC $1.9994 billion. Thus, this year’s Budget is more than the approved Budget for 2024 but less than the Revised Estimates of 2024.”

A key excerpt from the article:

The data show that the nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at market prices increased from EC $2.399 billion at the end of 2021 to EC $ 3.05 billion as at September 30, 2024. Indeed, the size of the economy of St. Vincent and the Grenadines as reflected in the GDP measurement increased from EC$ 2.84 billion at the end of 2023 to EC $3.05 billion as at September 30, 2025, nine months later. This is remarkable despite the economic damage and loss occasioned by Hurricane Beryl which has been estimated at slightly under EC $1 billion. It is to be noted that the nominal GDP at market prices at December 31, 2000, was EC $780 million — three months before the ULP took office; the nominal GDP today is some four times the sum in 2000!

Please note, too, that the annual GDP measures the aggregate of the value of all the goods and services produced in the economy over the specific time period.

The nine Functional Classification categories of the Recurrent and Capital Estimates for 2025 show that the expenditure items are: General Public Services (EC $517.69 million); Economic Affairs (EC $372.66 million); Education (EC $250.89 million); Health (EC $197.39 million); Social Protection (EC $191.44 million); Public Order and Safety (EC $105.63 million); Environmental Protection (EC $87.82 million); Housing and Community Amenities (EC $87.35 million); Recreation and Culture (EC $40.52 million). It is to be noted that from the capital budget, Economic Affairs constitutes the largest expenditure allocation of 35 per cent of the total capital budget; followed by Health (14 per cent); Housing (11.3 per cent); Environmental Protection (11 per cent); Education (8.2 per cent); the other functional classification categories on the capital side range between 2.4 per cent and 5.3 per cent of the total capital budget.