The 2017/2018 national budget is expected to announce a budget deficit with expenditure more than revenue.

So far the government has planned for slight deficits for the sake of development especially in the area of infrastructure.

The International Monetary Fund had projected global growth to slow to 3.2% last year and 3.5% this year.

A growth is still expected this year and this will mean a record eight years of continued growth for the Fijian economy.

According to the country’s accounting giants, Price Waterhouse Coopers fiscal deficit for 2017 and 2018 is forecast for between 2 to 2.5 % of the GDP.

As a result our national debt, made up largely of domestic borrowings was recently described by the international monetary fund as comfortable and this is expected to reduce further but albeit slightly to around 48% of GDP in 2017/2018 and 47.3% of GDP in 2018/19.

The budget announcement will be for an hour from 7:30pm-8:30pm tonight however our coverage on FBC TV will begin from 6:30pm and also the budget address will be live on our sister radio stations Radio Fiji 1, Radio Fiji 2 and Gold FM.