Madam Speaker, it is a privilege for me to present to this Honourable House and to the citizens of our country the National Budget for Fiscal 2023, the eighth (8th) budget of this PNM Administration. Let me state at the outset that it is my intention to focus in this Budget Statement on matters of a fiscal nature and selected areas of Government activity, in particular the productive sector.

 In areas where I do not go into detail, my ministerial colleagues will elaborate in their contributions.

 No reasonable person would dispute the fact that the last 7 years have been particularly challenging for us, financially, as a country. This Government has been confronted by many difficult financial shocks since 2015. In our first year, we were faced with the adverse macroeconomic impact of an extraordinary collapse in oil and gas prices which began in 2014 and accelerated in 2016.