Earlier this year, our government projected a deficit for 2013-14 of $1.6 billion.
We are now forecasting that the deficit has been significantly reduced to $563.8 million – a billion-dollar improvement to our bottom line.
That’s the way finance minister Jerome Kennedy started the 2013 budget speech in the House of Assembly on Tuesday. He said the dramatic change to two factors: more money coming in and “deliberate actions” by government to “rein in spending.”
One Telegram story on the 2013 budget ran with the idea of extra cash: “Unexpected oil revenues help with deficit”. Eight million extra barrels of oil production will bring in $265.5 million in new cash.
A CBC online story said the billion dollars came from two places:
Just over $301 million of the billion-dollar boost over recent projections is attributed to government cuts. Another $696 million came from improved expected revenues for the . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Budget downs and ups #nlpoli