Friday, February 22 2008

THE HERITAGE and Stabilisation Fund now stands in excess of $8 billion, the Finance Minister revealed yesterday in a presentation which put the Fund at about $11 billion. Since March 15, 2007, the Fund has seen an appreciation of $321.6 million, bringing its current total to about US$1.8 billion Karen Nunez-Tesheira, the Finance Minister, said at the post-Cabinet press briefing at Whitehall. The amount is roughly $11 billion.

Nunez-Tesheira said while the Central Bank has been doing a good job at managing the fund’s assets, with a good rate of return of about four percent, Government was in the process of finding an asset manager to manage the fund. The fund, set up by the Act of Parliament to “cushion” the economy to maintain the level of public expenditure; to act as an alternate stream of income and to create inter-generational wealth, is run on a day-today basis by the Central Bank.