The Leader of the Opposition, Ralph Gonsalves, expressed severe concerns regarding the 2026 budget deficit, characterising the financial estimates as “treading water dangerously and gasping for breath”.
Gonsalves highlighted a “headline number” of a $15.5 million budget deficit on the current account. He contextualized this by comparing it to the previous four years (2022–2025), a period he noted was marked by “immense dislocation” due to COVID-19, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes. He argued that the combined current account deficits of those four crisis years did not amount to the deficit presented in this single budget year.
The Opposition Leader insisted that “arithmetic does not lie” and “does not wait for applause,” urging the House to look beyond the basic revenue and expenditure figures. He broke down the deficit calculation to argue that the financial hole is much deeper than $15.5 million when debt servicing is included:
Current Account Deficit: Derived from the difference between recurrent expenditure ($1.012 billion) and current revenue ($96.85 million).
Amortization and Sinking Fund: He pointed out that one must add $270.9 million for amortization (principal debt payments) and sinking fund contributions to the current deficit.
Total Shortfall: He calculated that before even addressing capital expenditure, the government has a hole of approximately $411.4 million to address,.
Gonsalves criticised the government’s reliance on “local loans” to plug these deficits. The Leader noted that local loans were projected at $200 million, almost double the approved number for 2025. He said that because a significant portion of these loans ($160.4 million) is allocated to the capital budget, the government is essentially forcing a situation where they must borrow to cover recurrent expenditures.