THE deficit for the fiscal year will balloon by more than $430m because of Hurricane Dorian, with the government expecting to spend nearly $230m to recover from the storm while anticipating a revenue hit of about $215m, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest. He stressed in the House of Assembly yesterday evening that his figures are preliminary. He expects a more substantial assessment of the storm’s impact when the United Nation’s Economic Committee for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) completes their full damage and loss assessment of Abaco and Grand Bahama. The fiscal deficit for the 2019-2020 fiscal year will likely be about $573.4m, he said. In May, the government forecast a deficit of $137m; Dorian has caused that projection to increase by $436.4m. The East Grand Bahama MP revealed that the National Emergency Management Agency has received $5.8 million in donations from various private, corporate, foreign government, intergovernmental and non-profit organisations since the storm.

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