The Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Hon. Allen Michael Chastanet delivered the annual budgetary address on Tuesday, April 3.

The Prime Minister stated that this year’s budget focuses on maximising growth capacity and building resilience as a nation.

“Here at home, preliminary figures for 2017 indicate that the economy has started to grow again by the notable margin of 2.5 percent,” he said. “However, it is imperative that we remove the impediments to further growth. If we do not accommodate growth through investment, it will be temporary, unreliable, and therefore unsustainable.

“Our growth over the last year was driven largely by a strong recovery in the tourism sector and also reflected increased activity in the construction, wholesale and retail, and manufacturing sectors with positive spin-offs on other sectors.”