Cayman Islands Financial Boost

The Cayman Islands economy is showing some positive signs for 2013 in tourism and government finances, Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said. 

Speaking at the Cayman Business Outlook conference last week at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman she noted government finances during the first six months of the 2012/13 budget year, which runs from July to June, were ahead of expectations, and air arrival figures for 2012 should top 300,000, the best result in 11 years.

“I am happy to report that for the first six months of the 2012/13 financial year the government’s finances have performed better than our budgetary expectations,” Ms O’Connor-Connolly said. For the period 1st July to 31st December 2012, the government recorded total revenues of $218.52 million, which were some $5.2 million higher than the year to date budget. Operating expenses of $263.40 million were $11.8 million less than the budget, resulting in an overall net deficit of $44.9 million for the period, about $17 million better than expected, she said. 

The Cayman Islands government typically collects most of its revenues during the first months of the calendar year when many licences and other fees are due. For the entire budget year 2012/13, government forecasted that it would collect total revenue of $649.45 million, incur $567.2 in operating expenses and record an overall net surplus of $82 million. 

Ms O’Connor-Connolly pointed also to the territory’s triple-A credit rating, which was confirmed by Moody’s in December 2012 with a stable outlook. “This is quite an achievement as the global economic turmoil continues,” she said.