Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Marshalls government to study urgent spending cuts

Posted at 03:21 on 27 November, 2009 UTC

The Marshall Islands government is to study recommendations to cut expenditure to avoid a financial crisis.

This comes just days after the International Monetary Fund told the Marshall Islands it must start adding nine million US dollars more to a national trust

fund.

A Cabinet-appointed advisory group has now put forward a plan for the government to trim between four and ten million US dollars a year.

The finance minister, Jack Ading, says some of the recommendations are not easy.

They include a possible cut to the government’s large salary bill, which represents about 25 percent of its national budget of 137 million US dollars.

Mr Ading acknowledges the difficulty of these public service pay cut recommendations, but says he is prepared to sacrifice his benefits for the benefit of the Marshall Islands.