Tonga’s Parliament passed the 2022-2023 annual budget this week, reports Tonga Wires.
Totalling $764.7 million pa’anga (US$328.36 million), it is the Kingdom’s largest ever annual budget.
According to the Tonga Ministry of Finance, most of the budget $437 million (US$187 million) will be financed by Government while the rest $327.7 million (US$140.7 million) will be financed by development partners.
Of the total, $573.1 million (US$246 million) will be in cash, and $191.6 million (US$82 million) in the form of goods and services provided by foreign aid donors.
In January 2022, Tonga’s Foreign Reserve was estimated to be $856.1 million (US$367.6 million), and in April went up to $884.0 million (US$379.3 million), equivalent to 12.7 months of imports.