The Government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas says they expect 2009 to be a difficult fiscal year.
Faced with dwindling government revenues and the lack of an updated budget, Governor Benigno Fitial has announced a 5.5-percent budget cut for all agencies for the rest of the 2009 fiscal year.
Mr Fitial has urged the Legislature to enact laws to help reduce current spending and to generate additional revenues, pushing for measures including imposing austerity Fridays and non-paid holidays.
The Governor's press secretary Charles Reyes says currency depreciations in international markets are also hitting the CNMI badly, particularly its major industry of tourism.
"For example, the significant drop in the South Korean wan has adversely affected our Korean tourism market and that in turn impacts our tax collections and also contributes to reduced collections and the need to revise the budget downward as well as basically the complete collapse of our parallel manufacturing in view of globalisation and World Trade Organisation rules that took effect in January 2005."
Charles Reyes
