Premier Natalio Wheatley Presents $382.67M 2024 budget – $16M less than last year

Says Territory’s Economy Has Withstood Global Shocks

British Virgin Islands Premier and Finance Minister Natalio Wheatley on Tuesday presented a $382.67 million budget for the 2024 fiscal year, emphasising that the territory’s economy has held up against “global economic shocks and domestic challenges.”

The 2024 budget was unveiled on November 21 in the House of Assembly in Road Town, Tortola, under the theme “Planning, Priorities, and Progress: Building a Sustainable Nation,” with the largest allocations going to health education and pensions, public debt and funds contributions.

It was a slight decrease from last year’s $399 million budget – some sixteen million dollars less for the next financial year.

“Madam Speaker, the Virgin Islands economy fared well, and we will continue to rely on the resilient spirit we have demonstrated in the response to the storms we have weathered. We must strengthen ourselves for the journey because there are tests ahead,” the Premier told the nation during a LIVE broadcast.

Allocations

$95.92 million to the Ministry of Health and Social Development

$74.95 million to the Ministry of Communications and Works

$58.17 million is allocated to Pensions, Public Debt and Funds Contributions

$54.36 million to the Governor’s Group

$53.38 million to the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports

$39.52 million to the Ministry of Finance

$23.62 million to the Premier’s Office

$19.16 million to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sustainable Development; $16.11 million to the Constitutionally Established Bodies

$15.1 million for miscellaneous expenditure

$12.55 million to the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change

$7.91 million to the Ministry of Financial Services, Labour and Trade

A government statement said the Finance Minister “in deciding which projects needed to be accelerated, the Government, together with the team in the Ministry of Finance and other Ministries looked at the impact – whether social or economic – that initiatives would have, and how these aligned with the needs of stakeholders, from ordinary citizens to public and private sector workers, to business person and investors.”