The total expenditure for the 2017/2018 National Budget stands at $4.357b with a total projected revenue of $3.85b.

The net deficit of $499.5m is equivalent to 4.5 percent of GDP.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, says the revised GDP for this fiscal year (2016/2017) is estimated at two percent of GDP substantially lower than the 4.7 percent projected initially.

“This is due to prudent management of our finances, savings and operational expenditures, and unforeseen delays in the implementation of some of the capital projects as a result of bad weather, shortage of materials and the non-availability of construction companies. So these capital projects have been rolled over to 2017/2018 fiscal year and this is why we have a four point five percent deficit for this new budget year.”