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A weekly brief on the public record of
St. Kitts and Nevis · Basseterre

← The Briefing, No. 25.01

Affairs · Federal · 2025-01-01

Prime Minister's New Year address carries no 2024 outturn figure

ContinuingOPENED 2025-01-01

Prime Minister Terrance Drew delivered a New Year address on 1 January describing economic and social progress in 2024 and naming the Sustainable Island State agenda as the frame for 2025, according to the Saint Kitts and Nevis Information Service. The address, as summarised by SKNIS and by WINN FM, names infrastructural development as a 2025 priority. The address as summarised carries no 2024 outturn figure: no growth rate, no fiscal balance, no debt ratio, and no date for a Sustainable Island State strategy document or progress report. Figures dated 1 January and attributed to the International Monetary Fund give a fiscal deficit of 11.7 percent of GDP for 2025, public debt projections of 58.4 percent of GDP, economic growth of 1.5 percent, and Citizenship by Investment fees at 5.3 percent of GDP. In the same period the Prime Minister advocated a public health approach to crime prevention at a regional initiative in Trinidad and Tobago. As of 5 January no opposition or non-government response to the address appears in the material available to Newsful, and no reply attempt is recorded.

Still unanswered

no 2024 outturn figure or opposition response as of 5 January

This happened before

1984-2006 · St. Kitts and Nevis

The Federation launched its Citizenship by Investment programme in 1984 and operated it for over two decades with minimal published rules.

A defining national economic driver is announced and operated ahead of a published governance framework. Just as the CBI programme ran for years without public rules, the Sustainable Island State agenda is framed as the primary 2025 economic driver without a published strategy document or baseline figures.

The programme faced repeated cycles of reputational crisis, including visa suspensions, which eventually forced successive rounds of due diligence overhauls and rule publications.

Newsful historical corpus, 2026-07-19, 1984-2006 | St. Kitts and Nevis | Citizenship by Investment: the world's oldest CBI programme, launched 1984, operated for two decades with minimal published rules before international pressure forced successive reform rounds.

Source for this item

  1. SKNIS, 2025-01-01