The above question is often asked by a number of persons requiring that information for one reason or another.
That question was answered by Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, while delivering the 2017 Budget Address in the Anguilla House of Assembly on Monday, December 5.
Following is the information he disclosed:
“Mr. Speaker, preliminary estimates show Anguilla’s public sector debt at the end of 2016 stood at 419.24 million dollars (45 percent of GDP) which would represent a 97.09 percent (EC$206.53 million) increase over the 2015 debt stock of EC$212.71 million (24.70 percent of GDP). Of the outstanding debt for the period under review, Central Government debt accounted for 97.07 percent of the portfolio while the remaining 2.93 percent was accredited to government guarantees comprising loans for the Anguilla Development Board, the Anguilla Tourist Board and the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority. During the fiscal year 2016 the government proposed new borrowing totalling EC$325.0 million in support of resolving the banking crisis.
“New borrowing and disbursements contracted for the fiscal year totalled EC$216.85 million. Central Government accounted for EC$214.15 million. This represented the Anguilla Social Security Board (ASSB) Promissory Note to aid a resolution of the banking crisis by safeguarding ASSB funds deposited with the former indigenous banks NBA and CCB. There was a disbursement of EC$0.15 million on the Anguilla Community College Project Loan contracted in 2014 from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). To date, approximately EC$0.30 million has been disbursed on this loan. Government-guaranteed debt accounted for the remaining EC$2.7 million dollars incurred by the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority (ASSPA) to facilitate repairs to the Road Bay Jetty. The difference in the proposed borrowing and actual borrowing (EC$111.00 million) was because of outstanding transactions to be finalised in relation to the approved EC$59.0 million from CDB with the banking resolution (Bridge Bank Capitalisation Loan) and the EC$52.0 million Depositors’ Protection Trust Bond – both of which should materialise in 2017.
“Over the last two years, debt servicing costs have risen due to the increase in new debt, the expiration of the moratorium on the CDB Policy Based Loan in the last quarter of 2015 and the use of the ECCB Cash Advance Facility and the Overdraft Facility with the National Commercial Bank of Anguilla (NCBA). This Government stands committed to managing this increasing cost through prudent debt management.
“Mr. Speaker, in accordance with the Framework for Fiscal Sustainability and Development (FFSD) the Government of Anguilla was required to be in full compliance with the borrowing limits by the end of 2017. However, with the United Kingdom Government approved borrowing in support of the banking resolution, the compliance date has been extended to 2025. The borrowing limits include the net debt service ratios which should not exceed 80 percent and 10 percent of recurrent revenue respectively, and liquid assets which should be sufficient to cover 90 days or 25 percent of recurrent expenditure. End of the year projections show the net debt ratio at 199.35 percent, the debt service at 15.18 percent and liquid reserves at 8.20 percent or roughly 30 days.”
