Monthly Economic and Financial Developments (MEFD) September 2026
Published: Thursday October 29th, 2026
Economic indicators suggest that during the month of September, the domestic economy maintained its healthy growth momentum, relative to the comparative 2025 period. While key performance indicators continued to approach their estimated medium- to long-term levels, estimated growth trended above its forecasted medium-term average potential. Tourism output continued to register healthy gains, underpinned by the steady strengthening in the high-value-added stopover segment and robust growth in cruise sector activities. In fiscal developments, provisional data on the Government’s budgetary operations for FY2025/26 revealed that the fiscal balance shifted to an estimated surplus of $39.3 million, from a deficit of $84.8 million in FY2024/2025, as the growth in total revenue outpaced the rise in aggregate expenditure. On the labour front, the unemployment rate declined in the first quarter of 2026, compared with the first quarter of 2025. Monetary trends for September were marked by a reduction in banking sector liquidity, as the growth in domestic credit outweighed the build-up in the deposit base. Similarly, external reserves contracted during the review month, due to seasonal net foreign currency outflows through both the private and public sectors.
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