Briceño Administration Faces Major Financial Headwinds

Christopher Coye

Like the Prime Minister, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Christopher Coye is predicting major headwinds in the future. Coye appeared on Open Your Eyes this morning where he described the challenges that the government is facing on both the micro and macro levels. He revealed that by day’s end on Thursday, the economy would have shrunk by an unprecedented seventeen point one percent.  He also revealed that the debt to GDP ratio continues to grow and currently stands at one hundred and thirty-four percent. From a fiscal standpoint, Coye says that the country is weak.

Christopher Coye, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance

“Economy wise we have major head winds I would say in front of us. We have a lot of challenges both on a micro and macro level. I think if we can look at some of the numbers, I can speak to, the economy is expected I think Central Bank has indicated as much that the economy will shrink for the entire year of 2020 roughly seventeen point one percent. That obviously is unprecedented since independence and I would say generations for that to happen in one year. Our debt to GDP which is the second key component or key indicator is approaching a hundred and thirty five percent of GDP. It is over a hundred and thirty four point one percent as of the end of October. We keep borrowing roughly r little under one million dollars a day. To put it simply if you have in our household, if you have to borrow to pay your bills then you know you are in trouble and that is exactly what the government has been doing even before COVID but since COVID that has ramped up substantially. So from fiscal standpoint we are in a very weak position and fiscally there is very little that can be done or the government is very constraint in looking at how it can jump start the economy.”