Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Tuesday came with a Budget that included no new or increased taxes and featured an announcement that the country’s foreign reserves are about to hit an all-time high.Very early in her four-hour presentation of the 2023 Budgetary Proposals in the House of Assembly, Mottley made it clear that despite speculation to the contrary, her Budget was about “good news” with “no new taxes” imposed and no announcements of mass layoffs in the public sector.She stressed, however, that restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) would continue but provisions would be made, where possible, for workers affected by that process.While there had been hopes that further cost of living relief measures would be announced in her highly-anticipated speech, Mottley said the Government was doing all it could at this time, even as she thanked the private sector and labour movement for working with her administration to contain the prices of 49 food items.
