Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the Australian and New Zealand Governments have given direct budget support because there has been no defaults in our loan repayments and there is micro fiscal stability.
Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted this while opposing a motion by NFP President Pio Tikoduadua that Parliament approves a sum of $50 million from the COVID-19 support aid funds provided by the Governments of New Zealand and Australia to be disbursed as income support to the unemployed and affected small and medium businesses as a result of the outbreak of the pandemic.
He says if these fundamental principles of financial management and economic management were not met and if other Governments did not have the level of confidence, they would not have given direct budget support.
Sayed-Khaiyum says they need to have income support policies that need to be sustainable and targeted.
He says they have enough flexibility in the budget to be able to respond to that.
Sayed-Khaiyum says all Governments borrow, and in this particular instance, we will have to borrow as revenue was affected significantly.
He says all Governments have had to make adjustments.
