The Turks & Caicos Islands economy is outperforming all expectations, fueled by significantly increased visitor arrivals, customs processing and import duties, and historic stamp duty revenues on land transactions.
The good news was revealed by Premier, Charles Washington Missick, during his national address last Thursday, which focused on his administration’s first 200 days in office. Premier Missick noted that the country’s GDP growth forecast will be revised upward and that the TCI was operating with a significant unexpected surplus.
“ The economic performance of the economy has been stellar, all signs are pointing to an economy on the rebound. GDP growth which was forecasted to be about 2.1% is now revised up to 3.5% – 4% the outstanding performance by the hotel, restaurants and real estate sectors during the first eight months of 2021 when compared to the same period in 2020 is driving this economic rebound.
Preliminary figures shows that during the first half of this year, visitor arrivals increased by approximately 34.5% compared to the same period last year. Merchandise and imports into the Turks and Caicos Islands most, a lot of it building materials including the first half of this year totaled 215.6 million dollars this represents an increase of 30.6 million dollars or 16.9% when compared to the same period in 2020.
The recurrent Revenue of 165.4 million at August exceeded budget by a whopping 39.5 million, the major Revenue drivers are stand duty on land transactions be for to be forty-four million dollars the highest in history. Hotel restaurant tax 36 million dollars, Customs processing and import duties 42 million dollars. Also recurrent expenditure of 100 million is 21.5 below budget, this is mainly due to the late passage of the estimates and we expect this trajectory to change as the year progress, our net operating surplus ladies and gentlemen now stands at 61 Million dollars
Remember we went into this year projecting a 67% percent deficit, so there is no need to borrow to support the budget at this time, due to increased revenues and the lower than expected expenditure. Let me say though we have major infrastructure projects that we are scoping and we will not be banking money at the expense of developing our economy and developing our infrastructure you will hear more about that at a later time. ” – The Honorable Premier Michael Missick
This news puts the country in a significantly better position than many expected, especially given the previous budget deficit projections; and it now has some residents saying that this means a second stimulus package under the current administration can be facilitated, as many are still feeling the crunch of the COVID pandemic despite the stellar economic numbers.
However, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Infrastructure Development recently announced the government’s ‘COVID-19 Works Programme’, which the Premier also spoke to during his address.
The programme is meant to allow those who have had their jobs and livelihoods negatively impacted, as a result of the ongoing pandemic, to be to apply for a variety of government works contracts ranging in value from $1,500 to $70,000. Premier Missick says that US$5.3 million has been allocated for the programme and 44 contracts, at a total value of just under $313,000, have been awarded already.
Friday would have seen the closing of the tender process for several contracts worth $76,500; and this week will see a number of tender requests issued with a total value of around $446,000 for works across the islands in a range of categories. ‘The COVID-19 Works Programme’ will end in March 2022.
Premier Missick went on to talk about a range of other important national issues including the need for economic diversification and ongoing budget reform. The Premier also touched on Foreign Direct Investments, with project approvals at US$73 million dollars; government’s planned agreement of US$25 million dollars soon to be signed with Carnival Corporation; support for micro, small and medium size businesses (MSMEs); US$1 million dollars in grant money to reboot cruise businesses in Grand Turk and US$2 million dollars for the construction of a floating dock for water sports operators.
Healthcare, food security, public sector investment, public safety and justice, and immigration and border services were also among key topics covered by the Premier.
