Gibraltar's deputy chief minister delivers speech on progress of 2025 budget

Deputy chief minister Joseph Garcia addressed Gibraltar's parliament with the outline of the budget this year, announcing that the outturn figure of 2.26 million pounds had come in on budget and within last year's estimate of 2.36 million pounds.

In his speech he covered many topics including the global economic challenges from the pandemic, Ukraine war-driven inflation and rising transport costs that created a cost-of-living crisis. He highlighted how Brexit bitterness has given way to closer UK-EU cooperation amid changing geopolitics, including potential US withdrawal from Europe, Russia's war economy, Germany's bunker expansion and UK preparation for potential homeland conflict scenarios. He also emphasised the success of the EU/UK treaty negotiations and expressed his conviction that the treaty text, once ratified, will reflect the political positions of the four entities which have negotiated it.