Caribbean & Central America - October 2006 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The prospects the economy are, arguably, the brightest in the region. In the first half of the year the economy grew by 8.1%. Inflation is low and the balance of payments is in a reasonable state, despite a trade deficit that runs at the equivalent of about 11% of GDP. The government set its budget for 2007 at US$7.33bn. This is 9.3% up on the 2006 budget. The government said that it is increasing spending because taxes have yielded more than it expected. In the first eight months it collected US$1.78bn: this was US$344m more than budgeted and US$430m more than the government collected in 2005.

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