July 2013: In the Eye of the Storm
The financial and fiscal problems plaguing the Puerto Rico government are not new. The island has been borrowing its way to growth. Over the past years, PR has been struggling under the growing weight of massive fiscal deficits that have increased the costs of credit and among other things, disrupted reimbursements to vendors who contract with the government. The legislature and the governor recently approved a combination of revenue-raising and cost-cutting measures. The new budget includes $1.5 billion in additional new taxes. We need to understand how the underlying budget squeeze and recent wave of tax increases will impact GDP. Many fiscal distortions will deter investment. Can the PR tax system support growth in other ways? Preliminary forecasts suggest impacts on businesses and the economy could derail an already fragile growth in 2014.