Auditor General's Report on the Public Accounts of Montserrat 2004

person is expected to contribute toward the repayment of the debt
amounted to $7,532.28 per person 3 .
81. External Public Debt stood at $12,758,405 at the end of the year
being reviewed. The graph below compares the movements in the external
debt at the end of the years 2000 – 2004.
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DIAGRAM 6
EXTERNAL PUBLIC DEBT
20
EC$(M)
15
10
5
0
2001 2002 2003 2004
82. Principal repayments during the period amounted to $531,102 being
1.65% of actual local recurrent revenue recorded for 2004. When compared
against GDP 4 (in current prices for the year) 5 it represents 0.56%.
83. Domestic Debt in the form of Treasury Development Bonds totaled
EC$2.1M at the beginning of the year. EC$1M of the Treasury Development
Bonds were redeemed during the year, leaving an outstanding Domestic Debt
of EC$1.1M. The associated Sinking Fund, held at the Eastern Caribbean
Central Bank (ECCB), was reduced to $748,961.
84. As stated in paragraph 80 Public Debt includes a government’s
financial obligations including payment for goods and services outstanding at
the end of the fiscal year. A review of the Social Security law highlighted
3 The debt per capita is being calculated on the entire population there being no reliable
estimate of the working population. The figure might have been significantly increased if
children and aged persons were omitted from the calculation.
4 GDP measures the income generated by the entire economy.
5 GDP 2004 measured $94.57M. Source: Montserrat Statistics Unit
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