The Treasury Minister this week said the Isle of Man was in a ‘good position’ economically.

Alex Allinson was asked when a full financial statement including an update on reserves would be made, to which he confirmed this would be in October Tynwald.

He said: ‘I think it is very important that we do recognise that the Isle of Man – because of the previous two Treasury Ministers’ financial prudence and good judgement – we are in a very good position in terms of reserves.

‘We are in a good position in terms of the economic outlook for the government and for our island; and we must maintain both that business confidence and consumer confidence, because not to do so could create a downward recessionary spiral.

‘This island has done extremely well over the last two years and I am confident will continue to do well and will be able to weather the storms.’

Dr Allinson added: ‘Sometimes when we turn on the news we see what is happening on the adjacent isle and we assume the same pressures are going to happen on our island. This is Tynwald, we can make our own decisions.

‘We can do the best thing for our residents on this island and weather the storm.

‘But I can reassure the wider community that the Treasury will work across government to monitor the current situation, to intervene where necessary and to report back in October. Should we need to do so beforehand, I would be more than happy to do so.’

Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse, who posed the question, made the point that a lot had changed since the statement was announced in April.

‘Over the last few weeks we have seen increasing challenges with rising interest rates, increasing costs, low levels of consumer confidence, and the UK recording its second month of negative economic growth,’ he said.

Dr Allinson (pictured) agreed there is a ‘degree of volatility’ in terms of inflation rates. The minister said: ‘What I would say is that Treasury is working very carefully with other departments to look at the costs to living on the Isle of Man, to see how those can be mitigated if possible, to see how we can use government revenue in the best way of targeting those who are most affected by this and least able to make mitigations around this.

‘But in terms of the long-term projections, these are very difficult at the moment.

‘So I think it is absolutely prudent to make this statement in October when we have seen what happens over the summer, particularly in terms of inflation.’