KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Fiscal Policy Paper (FPP) for 2015/16 says that central government’s borrowing for financial year 2015/16, which begins on April 1, will amount to approximately J$129 billion.

Of the budgeted loan receipts, J$56.3 billion is programmed to be raised from domestic sources and J$72.5 billion from external (overseas) sources.

The overseas loans will be in the form of policy-based/development policy loans from international financial institutions, as well as J$11 billion in project loans in addition to loans from the international capital market.

However, the FPP says that the borrowing need for 2015/16 represents a 21 per cent decline in gross loan receipts compared to 2014/15. This reduced financing requirement is due chiefly to the lower fiscal deficit, as well as the fact that the Government of Jamaica had pre-financed a significant portion of its obligations due in 2015/16 from resources raised in 2014/15.

Balford Henry