00:00The country is in a trap and the government is yet to find a way to escape.
00:05That's the summation of economist Dr. Vannis James with Budget 2027,
00:11once again void of any significant development measures.
00:15The recurrent development ratio of the country today has deteriorated to $13.6 to $1.
00:25For every $13.6 you spend on consumption, you're spending $1 on investment.
00:32And what that is really telling you is that the budget is completely locked up
00:39in these rigid, recurrent operational costs, public sector wages, social grants,
00:48interest on the sovereign debt.
00:50It's locked up in that for the most part and we can't seem to find a way to unlock it.
00:57It is for this reason Dr. James believes the finance minister failed to make any announcements
01:03on government's flagship projects.
01:06He remained completely silent on two critical things under the last government, the last budget.
01:15One is this mega data center, and you also didn't mention the status of the revitalization blueprint
01:23that the government went to great lengths to roll out.
01:27And what the lack of progress on that and the lack of any update by the government on the progress
01:35on that exposes is that the GDP spending, the spending from the GDP and the budget
01:46has the country in a trap.
01:49The state cannot really fund its share of these big projects that it has rolled out.
01:57Dr. James Fuller notes that the economy continues to steadily decline,
02:01with a resultant drop in employment.
02:04The economist is making the following assessment.
02:07If you were trying to execute the revitalization blueprint,
02:12you would have to set up the domestic environment properly.
02:15You would have to make sure you have a well-functioning foreign exchange market.
02:20You would have to streamline your regulatory arrangements
02:23so your projects don't delay in the way they have delayed over the last year.
02:28And you'd have to invest in real infrastructure of various forms,
02:32not a little of which has to be intellectual infrastructure.
02:37So you trumpet what doesn't cost you anything to do.
02:43And the component of your program that would require real investment
02:48and clever management, you don't mention anything about that.
02:52And I think that's the point of trumpeting the EU, the listing.
02:57Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
