BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – The federal government has tabled a BND6.3 billion provide invoice for the 2026/2027 monetary 12 months, aiming to steadiness between fiscal prudence with Brunei’s long-term growth wants.
Addressing the Legislative Council on Saturday, the Second Minister of Finance and Financial system, Dato Dr Hj Mohd Amin Liew Abdullah, confirmed that the federal government expects to hold its fiscal deficit into the upcoming 12 months. Whereas the deficit was initially forecast to succeed in BND3.1 billion by the top of FY 2025/26, the federal government has but to launch up to date figures.
With warfare within the Persian Gulf disrupting international vitality markets, Dato Amin burdened that sustaining macroeconomic stability is now crucial. “International financial uncertainties—influenced by geopolitical tensions, shifting commerce buildings, modest international progress prospects and local weather change—require the federal government to behave strategically,” he stated.
He warned that an over-reliance on oil and gasoline is unsustainable, noting that whereas Brunei stays an open financial system, that very openness leaves it “susceptible to exterior elements resembling commerce tensions and import value pressures”.
Monitoring financial progress
Reviewing the nation’s financial efficiency, Dato Amin reported that Brunei’s financial system grew by 0.7% in 2025. This was pushed by a 3.1% uptick within the oil and gasoline sector, which offset a 1.5% decline within the non-oil and gasoline sector.
Regardless of the reasonable progress, he urged a long-term perspective, emphasising that from 2015 to 2025, GDP grew by a mean of 0.6% yearly, whereas the non-oil sector grew at a extra sturdy 2.7% throughout the identical interval. By 2025, non-oil items accounted for 61% of whole exports and 54% of GDP, pushed by the manufacture of chemical and petroleum-derived merchandise.
“This means that within the long-term the financial system is exhibiting constructive gradual change,” the minister stated. Estimates for GDP progress in 2026 vary from 1.5% to 2.4%, in line with estimates from completely different monetary establishments.
The non-public sector has additionally seen important growth: enterprise income grew from BND25.9 billion in 2015 to BND35.4 billion in 2024, whereas the non-public sector’s share of the workforce rose from 53% to 70% over the identical decade.
Dato Amin stated it marked a shift in an financial construction that’s more and more pushed by the non-public sector moderately than the general public sector. Nonetheless, he famous that structural challenges stay, citing a abilities mismatch between the workforce and business necessities, and synthetic intelligence reworking the character of labor.
To maintain financial momentum, the federal government goals to drive future progress by focusing funding on key sectors, together with downstream oil and gasoline, meals, companies, tourism, and ICT.
Roadmap to Imaginative and prescient 2035
With lower than ten years remaining to succeed in long-term targets, this 12 months’s funds is themed “Collectively Attaining Imaginative and prescient 2035”, specializing in accelerating the transition towards a sustainable and diversified financial system.
The proposed BND6.3 billion provide invoice allocates BND2.31 billion (36.7%) to emoluments resembling salaries and pensions, whereas BND2.45 billion (38.8%) is earmarked for the recurring bills of presidency ministries.
Moreover, BND480 million is allotted for initiatives underneath the twelfth Nationwide Growth Plan (RKN 12), with the remaining BND1.06 billion falling underneath the federal government’s charged expenditure.
“Confronted with at this time’s fiscal realities and international challenges, we will not view the funds merely as an inventory of expenditures,” Dato Amin concluded. He acknowledged that the deficit could be managed by prudent expenditure management and efforts to bolster non-oil and gasoline income.
