St Johns: Antigua PM Gaston Browne is going to present his government’s 2025 national budget statement on Thursday. Browne while giving a speech at the Annual National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving stated about the budget while also giving it a tagline naming it the ‘Creating a Resilient, Harmonious, and Prosperous Nation’ highlighting the nation’s growth rate over the past 5 years. The nation has achieved a very high real GDP growth rate of 6 per cent in 2024 surpassing the IMF’s global growth projection of 3.2 percent.
Statement of PM Browne regarding Growth Rate of Antigua & Barbuda in recent years
Antigua and Barbuda’s performances in terms of economy and fiscal measures outstrips major economies such as the United States of America, the European Union and the United Kingdom.
“Over the past 3 years, from 2021 to 2023, we have maintained an impressive average annual growth rate of 7.4 percent. In our region, only Guyana with its burgeoning oil and gas sector has exceeded our growth rate. This achievement is a testament to the effective management of our economy and the resilience of our people.”
He further went on to add, “We have surpassed the 2024 projection and are confident that, with the continued support and contribution of every working person in the country, we will exceed the 3.5 percent growth forecast for 2025. These figures are not mere statistics, they reflect the unwavering support of our people and soundness of economic strategies and policies.”
PM Speech on National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving
The Prime Minister showed his gratitude to the senior opposition leaders who were present at the thanksgiving event hosted by the United Progressive Party.
“Today we gathered to give thanks and to praise. I am especially pleased to see the senior members of the opposition party who have joined us to give thanks. And this demonstrates that this national day of thanksgiving is not a party celebration but is an institution that should be respected by all. So I thank everyone who has decided to participate in this thanksgiving session.”
“2024 was an extremely good year for Antigua and Barbuda and its residents. Last year we saw fiscal improvements of the government and economic expansion of 6 percent. Our banking sector did extremely well. If recalled, back in 2014, a decade ago we had a banking sector that was worst performing in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). At the time we had bank failures that included ABI bank. Also we had an insolvent Caribbean Union Bank, that had 100’s of millions of dollars in losses most of which were absorbed by taxpayers to protect depositors.”
Achievements of the Government in 2024 and vision for 2025
Talking about the Government Initiatives taken in 2024, PM Browne stated, “Back to 2024, we saw significant improvements in the banking sector with 3 domestic banks having profits in excess of 100 million dollars. We have seen improvements in the tourism industry with foreign arrivals increasing. Along with the issues of development with regard to the resources that we need to address, there are a lot of areas that need to be focused. We are pretty sure to look into these areas in 2025 and make significant progress and literally take the country to new levels of development.”
He went on to thank every citizen who were involved in the building of the initiatives in 2024 and asked the rest of the residents to come forward and participate in the nation building during the whole of 2025. “Do come forward and participate in nation building working in various aspects such as spiritual, environmental, economic and social areas. Let us set targets and have clarity of visions with resolve to achieve them and make progress with unity of purpose.”
