2011 Budget Address by Dr
2011 BUDGET ADDRESS BY DR. The HONOURABLE RALPH E. GONSALVES PRIME MINISTER/MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC PLANNING Delivered Monday 24th January, 2011. FISCAL AND FINANCIAL STABILISATION, JOB CREATION, WEALTH CREATION, AND SOCIAL SAFETY AT THE TAIL-END OF THE RECESSION INTRODUCTION Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, this is my tenth Budget Speech as Minister of Finance. It is being delivered in the immediate aftermath of the Unity Labour Party’s third successive electoral victory, a triumph secured in the most challenging economic circumstances, inclusive of the severe socio-economic dislocations caused by the passage of Hurricane Tomas on October 30, 2010. The 2011 Budget has been crafted in an external economic environment shaped by the global financial and economic meltdown of September 2008, and continuing. Currently, a marked unevenness in performance characterises the world economy. Countries in the European Union such as Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, the so-called PIGS, are experiencing severe fiscal and financial challenges, growing unemployment and lacklustre economic growth. In the United Kingdom, savage budgetary cuts have increased joblessness in a context where private-sector led demand has yet to take up the slack in government spending. In the USA, there is a faltering, uneven recovery, and there are signs that the American economy may be at the tail-end of its recession and the attendant adverse consequences. Japan is yet to emerge from its structural condition of low or no economic growth. Strong economic performance is evident among the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). So, too, in some other emerging economies and in developing economies in parts of Africa and Latin America.
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