The public debt of St. Vincent and the Grenadines stood at EC$3.5 billion as of Dec. 31 2025, as the former Unity Labour Party government spent money “like a drunken sailor” ahead of the Nov. 27 general election.
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Godwin Friday disclosed the extent of the nation’s indebtedness as he presented the 2026 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure to Parliament on Thursday, telling lawmakers the full amount was EC$3,539,759,270.
The EC$3.5 billion debt was some EC$400 million more than Friday’s New Democratic Party (NDP) government had thought it was when the prime minister spoke to the nation on state radio on Dec. 23.
He told Parliament on Thursday that the debt as of Dec. 31 was 13% more than the total disbursed outstanding debt for the comparative period in 2024.
Presenting the fiscal package, Friday said the total domestic debt was EC$993 million as of Dec. 31 2025, an increase of 1.1% and EC$10.7 million, year-on-year.
The external debt was EC$2.55 billion, an increase of 18.7% year on year.
Friday said a “troubling” element of the domestic debt was the overdraft owed by the public sector, which increased by EC$5.2 million or 3.5%, while the local loans portfolio went up by 6.6%.
“One of the things that we should note is that the overdraft facility, which Parliament said would be basically $85 million, has expanded to close to $200 million at one point,” the prime minister told lawmakers.
He said debt servicing in 2025 comprised interest payments of EC$120.7 million, amortisation of EC$215.4 million, and EC$22 million set aside as sinking fund contributions.
The prime minister presented his first fiscal package since his New Democratic Party (NDP) was elected on Nov. 27.
The NDP won 14 of the 15 parliamentary seats, unseating the Unity Labour Party, which has been in office since March 2001.
At the end of the debate, lawmakers approved estimates of EC$1,885,609,965, representing a 2% increase over the approved 2025 budget.
It includes recurrent expenditure, including amortisation and sinking fund contributions of EC$1,308,319,855.
The prime minister said the financing for the 2026 budget is expected to come from current revenue of $906,875,230 and from capital receipts totalling $978,734,735.
He said the 2026 recurrent estimates, not including amortisation and sinking fund contributions, amount to EC$1.01 billion.
The capital expenditure is EC$577,209,110.
Wrapping up the debate Thursday night, the prime minister pointed out that his two-month-old NDP administration “inherited” the bad fiscal situation from the Ralph Gonsalves-led government, which the electorate ousted on Nov. 27.
“… they spent in this election year like a drunken sailor,” Friday told lawmakers.
“And we come into government, we have to carry on the business of government. You had to pay salaries. We have to honour our promises that we made to the people when we were campaigning, because these are the things that mattered to them, even though they said so that the issues of the cost-of-living crisis that people were feeling.”
Friday said that in her contribution to the debate, opposition Senator Keisal Peters acknowledged the VAT-free shopping day but didn’t say is that it “was an overwhelming success”.
“I know that the situation is difficult. We expected that. We didn’t expect it to be as difficult as it is,” Friday told Parliament.
He noted that the law allows the government to borrow up to EC$85 million as a fluctuating overdraft.
“… [when] we came into office, the overdraft was close to $200 million. That’s at seven or 8% interest. The debt we thought was $2.5-2.6 billion is $3.5 billion,” the prime minister said.
“You have a situation where when I got into office, I thought that … the debt-to-GDP ratio is 101%; we see how in the estimate is 110% servicing the debt.
“… 39.5 cents out of every dollar of tax dollars that we earn goes just to pay debt. The debt service this year is $358 million. We have to find that money just to pay for things that were done before we came into office. That’s what we inherited,” Friday told lawmakers.
Friday asked the three-member Gonsalves-led opposition how dare they come to the Parliament with the “gall to say, ‘Oh, you don’t have stuff that will generate growth and generate this and so on.’
“We’re looking after the people first. We promised them that we will ease the cost-of-living crisis. Then we will take care of the economy. The mess that you made is a big one. You take a little time to clean it up, and we will clean it up,” Friday told the lawmakers on the opposition bench.
The outlandish spending pf tax payers money carried out by the ULP government in the period leading up to the 2025 general elections should be a reason to launch a wide scale investigation into the Ralph Gonsalves led government.
Too much wastage and corrupt activities are beleoved to have taken place and only a thorough investigation will revealed the extent of the damage that was done to the economy.
Time to proceed with this. Vincentians deserve to know.
I kept indicating to Friday and the NDP that they would find the cupboard empty, if and when they take over the government. There is no reason for him and the NDP to be dwelling on that issue now. They have to come up with ideas and plans to reverse the trend and put back some funds in the cupboard.
That’s why I encouraged him and the candidates to stop talking until they examined the cupboard. There is no way Friday and the NDP can correct the errors Ralph and the ULP made for more than 20 years.
NDP and the new government ministers should come up with a list of things they home to accomplish for the next few years. Ironically the items have to cover all the constituencies because of the number of they won.
Deals that Sandals and other foreign and passport investors got should be available to businesses and entrepreneurs who may want to make investments in the island.
Accountability was really lacking on the ulp side too much wastage and unnecessary projects that was funded with thousands of dollars and the projects are dead are in dilapidated conditions, these money could have been spent in a far more meaningful way for the betterment of all vincentians.