Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló yesterday released a revised fiscal plan that will use $18 billion of additional money from the U.S. federal budget to transform the bankrupt island’s deficit into a $3.4 billion surplus within six years, Reuters reported. The injection of new funding from the federal budget, enacted earlier this month, will let the U.S. territory shift its recovery plan again and make changes requested by its federally appointed financial oversight board. The new blueprint came after Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September and altered its economic outlook. Before the storms, the recovery plan had projected a nearly $4 billion surplus through 2021. But after the hurricanes, the government forecast a $3.4 billion gap for the same period that would not allow any repayment of the island’s debt. Now, the island’s budgetary health would rise again to a projected $3.4 billion surplus by 2023 under the new estimates, as the destruction is also bringing disaster aid. Altogether, the revised plan incorporates $21 billion of private insurance proceeds and assumes $49.1 billion of disaster aid from the federal government.
