Cen­tral gov­ern­ment record­ed a fis­cal deficit of $4.3 bil­lion for the first nine months of the 2024 fis­cal year, which is from Oc­to­ber 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, ac­cord­ing to the Cen­tral Bank of T&T.

In its Eco­nom­ic Bul­letin for Ju­ly 2024, which was pub­lished yes­ter­day, the Cen­tral Bank said for the nine-month pe­ri­od, cen­tral gov­er­ment col­lect­ed $35 bil­lion and spent $39.3 bil­lion.

For the first nine months of the 2023 fis­cal year, T&T record­ed a fis­cal sur­plus of $88 mil­lion.

Gov­ern­ment col­lect­ed $10.2 bil­lion in en­er­gy rev­enue for the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, down from $21 bil­lion in the com­pa­ra­ble nine-month pe­ri­od in 2023.

Ac­cord­ing to the Cen­tral Bank, falling en­er­gy tax­es drove the de­crease in en­er­gy sec­tor rev­enues.

"Tax­es from en­er­gy com­pa­nies (which in­clude sup­ple­men­tal pe­tro­le­um tax and pe­tro­le­um prof­its tax), rep­re­sent­ing 75 per cent to­tal en­er­gy sec­tor rev­enue, were re­spon­si­ble for a $8.4 bil­lion falloff in rev­enue col­lec­tions," said the Eco­nom­ic Bul­letin.

Mean­while, the Cen­tral Bank said the for­eign ex­change mar­ket con­di­tions re­mained tight in the first sev­en months of 2024.

Pur­chas­es of for­eign ex­change by au­tho­rised deal­ers from the pub­lic amount­ed to US$2,647.9 mil­lion over Jan­u­ary to Ju­ly 2024, a falloff of 3.8 per cent (year-on-year).

It not­ed that de­creased pur­chas­es fol­lowed a 7.9 per cent (year-on-year) de­cline in con­ver­sions by en­er­gy com­pa­nies, adding that for the pe­ri­od Jan­u­ary to Ju­ly 2024, pur­chas­es from the en­er­gy sec­tor ac­count­ed for 71.9 per cent of to­tal for­eign cur­ren­cy pur­chas­es over US$20,000 in val­ue.

The re­port fur­ther said that sales of for­eign ex­change by au­tho­rised deal­ers to the pub­lic reached US$3,391.8 mil­lion over Jan­u­ary to Ju­ly 2024, a de­crease of 8.3 per cent rel­a­tive to the same pe­ri­od a year pri­or.

"Based on re­port­ed da­ta for trans­ac­tions over US$20,000, cred­it cards (43.7 per cent), en­er­gy com­pa­nies (18.5 per cent), re­tail and dis­tri­b­u­tion (16.0 per cent), and au­to­mo­bile com­pa­nies (5.7 per cent) made up the bulk of for­eign ex­change sales by au­tho­rised deal­ers to the pub­lic. The net sales gap reached US$743.8 mil­lion dur­ing the pe­ri­od. To sup­port the mar­ket, the Cen­tral Bank sold US$750.0 mil­lion to au­tho­rised deal­ers," the re­port ex­plained.