The Chairman of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee, EPOC, Keith Duncan, says the body is satisfied with the country’s fiscal situation, heading into the new financial year.
However he’s expressing unease about the repeated failure to meet the wage to GDP target.
Mahiri Stewart tells us more.
Heading into the new Financial Year, the country is on track to meet most of its fiscal targets.
Tax revenues outperformed projections in the third supplementary budget while Net International Reserves stood at almost US $4 billion at the end of February.
It’s these indicators which have the EPOC Chairman feeling confident about the economy over the next 12 months.
Ninety five percent of public sector workers have already agreed to terms under the compensation review exercise.
Mr. Duncan says the government deserves plaudits for settling an issue that has long proven problematic for previous administrations.
He says the settlement of the compensation issue is the first step in stimulating higher levels of productivity and improved efficiency in the public sector.
But the EPOC chairman says there’s at least one point of concern amid the positive signals being sent in the economy.
That issue concerns the fact that the government has, for the last four budget cycles, missed its target of achieving a wage to GDP ratio of 9-percent.
He says the government must either fix its aim or change the target.
