CAS­TRIES-Prime Min­is­ter Dr. Ken­ny An­tho­ny says St Lu­cia has the largest fis­cal deficit in the Caribbean as he pre­pares to ad­dress the na­tion to­mor­row on the eco­nom­ic chal­lenges fac­ing the is­land. "Where­as oth­er Caribbean states might have a fis­cal deficit of sev­en to eight per cent of GDP (Gross Do­mes­tic Prod­uct), we are climb­ing up to ten per cent. That's a warn­ing sign so we have re­al­ly got to en­sure that we bring it un­der some de­gree of con­trol, and re­solve those dif­fer­ences.

"So when you see for ex­am­ple I plead for un­der­stand­ing from our pub­lic ser­vice unions and oth­ers en­gaged in the ne­go­ti­a­tions, it pre­cise­ly for that rea­son be­cause we need to re­store St Lu­cia's fi­nan­cial stand­ing," An­tho­ny said In the ad­dress to­mor­row, An­tho­ny, who is al­so Fi­nance Min­is­ter, is ex­pect­ed to out­line the eco­nom­ic dif­fi­cul­ties fac­ing the is­land amid calls from pub­lic sec­tor trade unions for in­creased salaries.

CMC