The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

GOVERNMENT must continue to stay the course in the management of this nation's fiscal affairs, according to Finance Minister K Peter Turnquest who insists: "We are making tremendous progress".

In an interview with Tribune Business Mr Turnquest said: "I think that we are generally pleased with where we are. We must be very diligent about expenditures and must stick to the plan. There will also be circumstances that will arise and we will try to account for those within the confines of our budget but it continues to require the discipline and patience that we have exercised over the last two years if we are going to achieve our targets.

"So far we are pleased where we are and expect that the results will certainly prove that we have been on the right track with respect to the management of the fiscal affairs of the country."

Mr Turnquest noted the nation's economy has benefitted from what he described 'tremendous' tourism seasons for the past two years. This has certainly enured to the benefit of our fiscal situation as well as the fact that we have had a drop in the unemployment rate and we have had real GDP growth over the last two years. These are all trending in the right direction.

"We know that there are fiscal clouds on the horizon we have to be concerned and aware of. We continue to exercise conservative fiscal policies to ensure we are capable of responding to the challenges that may arise whether it be a natural disaster sort economic shock."​​

He added: "When we laid out our fiscal plan we said this would be a period of shared sacrifice to account for excesses that we have had for several years. We did not build up the fiscal challenges that we met overnight and they cannot be resolved overnight, however with patience, discipline and shared sacrifice we can get there. We remain faithful to our promises to the Bahamian people about what we would do with the resources that they have given us to manage."

Mr Turnquest said that while critics have slammed the Minnis administration for bowing to the dictates of international agencies, this assertion was 'misleading at best'. "While we are certainly capable of managing our own affairs and have a right to do so we do trade in goods and services internationally. We have to be more mindful that we have to comply with international trading rules particularly as we are a financial services jurisdiction". ​​

He added: "The credit ratings agencies obvious look at our fiscal performance to determine how they access the level of risk for our sovereign bonds traded on the international market. That affects our ability to attract investors and the costs of those bonds. We have to be mindful that we engage this economy not just for our domestic use or internal politics but also because we are a country trading in international community and our sovereign debt is trade internationally and we have to be mindful our obligations as trading partners."