Nevis financial status improving

(NIA) CHARLESTOWN NEVIS — The financial status of Nevis has been improving. The announcement was made by Premier of Nevis and Minister of Finance Hon. Vance Amory, when he delivered remarks at a Conference on the Economy 2013. The meeting was hosted by the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) on October 18, 2013, at the Red Cross Conference room.

The conference was attended by a number of stakeholders in various sectors on Nevis, who would help the NIA plan the way forward for a vibrant and strong economy.

“It is important for me to state that up to September this year, we have been able to stabilise the financial status of Nevis and it is one of the bases on which we have to move forward and that is having a responsible management of the Nevis fiscal and financial situation…

“Whether it is instructive going through the Ministry of Finance and the efforts we have made to control expenditure; trim the fat and the excess which was bleeding the treasury, our Administration for the period January to September 2013, can report improvements in both the current account balance and the overall primary balances. The overall balance which recorded a deficit of 0.574million in 2012 has moved into a surplus position of 0.732million in 2013.Our current revenue for the period amounted to 88.326million and it has outperformed the 2012 period by some 2.7 percent,” he said.

Mr. Amory said the surplus was attained even though at the end of September the Administration had suffered some embarrassment in that it “could not” cash out its $20million Treasury Bonds.

However, he stated that he did not see that incident as a significant negative but instead as a challenge to prevent the unfortunate process and procedure from being repeated. It should be a lesson on how the Administration seeks to manage its affairs going forward.

Notwithstanding, the Finance Minister deemed the surplus a commendable effort and thanked the Ministry of Finance and the agencies who were responsible for Government collection and expenditure for the work done in ensuring that the resources of the people were effectively managed.