ST. GEORGE’S, GRENADA, December 1-  Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall announced Monday that unemployment has fallen to 7.5%, the lowest level in the nation’s modern economic history, as he presented the 2026 Budget to Parliament.

The improvement represents a reversal from the 16.6% unemployment rate recorded in the second quarter of 2021 when the Dickon Mitchell administration took office. Youth unemployment has similarly plummeted from 42% to 20.2% over the same period—a drop of 21.8 percentage points.

“By the end of October 2025, the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.5 percent, the lowest level in our modern economic history,” Cornwall told the House of Representatives, describing the achievement as “transformative.”

However, opponents of the administration have challenged some of the Government’s economic claims, implying that the figures given are not an accurate reflection of the state of the local economy.

The positive employment figures come alongside economic growth, with the Government projecting real GDP growth of 6.2% in 2025, moderating to 4.1% in 2026.

The 2026 Budget provides for total expenditure of $1.96 billion, with recurrent revenue of $1.3 billion and a projected overall deficit of $309.8 million.

Cornwall revealed that groundbreaking for Project Polaris, a new state-of-the-art teaching hospital, will commence in 2026. “The world will witness the official groundbreaking for Project Polaris in 2026—a defining milestone in Grenada’s healthcare transformation journey,” he declared.

On housing, the Government will complete 17 model homes under Project 500’s pilot phase in Dunfermline by year-end, with a new $50 million Government Housing Fund established to unlock private-sector capital for expansion.
To ease household burdens, the Government is maintaining over $47 million in cost-of-living relief, including reduced petrol taxes, electricity subsidies, and VAT exemptions on 20 basic items.

Major public sector reforms include a new Contributory Pension Plan covering over 3,600 officers. At the same time, the energy transition received a boost with over $140 million mobilized for renewable energy projects, including the Solar for All Programme.