Ending the Friday night's Budget debate in the House of Assembly, Finance Minister Eugene Cox described his budget as conservative and prudent.

He again took a swipe at accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers for their “alarmist” assessment, issued last week, that the Budget could be damaging to the economy.

He said he later met the firm and they admitted had no economic advisors and no one with an economic background on hand when they produced the assessment.

He described their comments as similar to those heard from the Opposition. “People think if that because they have an opinion it is the answer.”

He said MPs had to be responsible and make sure their comments were accurate, rather than expressing a view they were not sure was correct simply to grab a headline, which then makes it onto the internet.

“It is important for the Opposition when they are making statements that if they know they are not true they should not present them. We don't mind criticism, but for God's sakes don't do it in such a way if you are not certain just to get a headline.”

He said rating agencies Moody's and Standard and Poor's had given Bermuda a good rating for all three years of the PLP's tenure in government.

Spending was down 1.4 percent in real terms, which was in contrast to spending by the UBP when Bermuda was last in a recession, when they took debt from $56 million to $100 million by 1995.

It was unfair for them to criticise the PLP for doing what they did. “What the (Opposition) members are saying the Government should not do, they were doing,” said Mr. Cox.

He said wrong figures had been issued for the numbers of foreigners working in Bermuda. The number had risen from 23.4 percent to 25 percent, not from 19 percent, as was stated in the economic review.

Describing it as a conservative Budget, he said measures were in place to help businesses stay afloat if the US economy did not recover quickly.

“But, if America recovers rapidly, and some are saying it will, we are in good stead because of what we've done in our package. If it does not recover as quickly, we've given those relief packages to those companies to stay in business and employ Bermudians.”