KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Government is projecting to spend $1.3 trillion during the 2024/2025 fiscal year that gets underway on April 1.

The figure is contained in the 2024/25 Estimates of Expenditure which were tabled in the House of Representatives on Thursday by the Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke.

“Jamaica’s national budget is now firmly in the trillion-dollar range with total expenditure and payments for fiscal year 2024/2025 estimated at $1.3 trillion,” Clarke told the House shortly after tabling the Budget. He said it will be financed by revenue and grant receipts of $1 trillion and loan and other financing of $0.3 trillion.

Clarke said the government has a maturing debt of $317 billion in 2024, an amount that has been included in the expenditure figure. This compares with the $125 billion which matured in 2023. Additionally, he said non-debt expenditure of approximately $849.9 billion is 10.9 per cent higher than the non-debt expenditure of $765.8 billion in the Fourth Supplementary Estimates for 2023/24.

Clarke explained that the revenue expenditure profile programme generates the targeted positive fiscal balance of 0.3 per cent of GDP as required under the recovery profile generated following the suspension of the fiscal rules in fiscal year 2020/2021. This was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The finance minister explained that contributing to the $1.3 trillion profile are: non-debt recurrent expenditure of $769.9 billion; capital expenditure of $80 billion; and debt service of $491.2 billion.

Non-debt recurrent expenditure includes allocation for recurrent programme expenses at $327.8 billion and compensation expenses at $442 billion. The compensation allocation includes an estimated amount to conclude the implementation phase of the restructured compensation system during the fiscal year.

Of note is that wages and salaries are projected to represent 12.6 per cent of GDP in 2024/25, up from 9.2 per cent of GDP in 2019/20.

“It must be noted that the amount budgeted for public sector compensation for 2024/25 exceeds actual compensation for 2021/22, the year before the compensation restructuring began by approximately $200 billion.

“It is obvious that the government has made a concerted effort to address the historical challenges in public sector compensation and now it is time to consolidate,” Clarke remarked.

He added that “As a country we need to be careful to ensure that sufficient resources are left for growth-inductive capital expenditure for programmes that can enhance Jamaica’s human capital and for social expenditure on behalf of the more vulnerable members of the Jamaican society”.