Central government recorded a fiscal deficit of $4.3 billion for the first nine months of the 2024 fiscal year, which is from October 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, according to the Central Bank of T&T.
In its Economic Bulletin for July 2024, which was published yesterday, the Central Bank said for the nine-month period, central goverment collected $35 billion and spent $39.3 billion.
For the first nine months of the 2023 fiscal year, T&T recorded a fiscal surplus of $88 million.
Government collected $10.2 billion in energy revenue for the period October 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, down from $21 billion in the comparable nine-month period in 2023.
According to the Central Bank, falling energy taxes drove the decrease in energy sector revenues.
"Taxes from energy companies (which include supplemental petroleum tax and petroleum profits tax), representing 75 per cent total energy sector revenue, were responsible for a $8.4 billion falloff in revenue collections," said the Economic Bulletin.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank said the foreign exchange market conditions remained tight in the first seven months of 2024.
Purchases of foreign exchange by authorised dealers from the public amounted to US$2,647.9 million over January to July 2024, a falloff of 3.8 per cent (year-on-year).
It noted that decreased purchases followed a 7.9 per cent (year-on-year) decline in conversions by energy companies, adding that for the period January to July 2024, purchases from the energy sector accounted for 71.9 per cent of total foreign currency purchases over US$20,000 in value.
The report further said that sales of foreign exchange by authorised dealers to the public reached US$3,391.8 million over January to July 2024, a decrease of 8.3 per cent relative to the same period a year prior.
"Based on reported data for transactions over US$20,000, credit cards (43.7 per cent), energy companies (18.5 per cent), retail and distribution (16.0 per cent), and automobile companies (5.7 per cent) made up the bulk of foreign exchange sales by authorised dealers to the public. The net sales gap reached US$743.8 million during the period. To support the market, the Central Bank sold US$750.0 million to authorised dealers," the report explained.
