Timor-Leste’s Petroleum Fund (PF) was worth US$17.84 billion at the end of June, down from US$19.12 billion at the end of March, the central bank has announced.
In the Quarterly Report of the Petroleum Fund for the period ending 30 June 2022, the Central Bank of Timor-Leste (BCTL) said that the gross inflows into the fund, the main source of the state budget, were US$49.06 million.
These receipts correspond to US$37.63 million from taxpayers and US$11.43 million from royalty payments by the National Petroleum Authority.
The Fund’s investment income was negative US$1.028 billion, of which US$79.19 million was in the form of dividend and interest receipts and US$1.089 million in the form of market value movement, while foreign exchange movement was US$11.86 million.
“The result was a return for the Fund’s portfolio of minus 5.33 per cent,” according to the report.
In the second quarter of 2022, US$303.52 million came out of the Fund, of which US$300 million was in the form of transfers to the State Budget and US$3.52 million to cover operational management costs.
According to Lusa News Agency, in November 2021, the Timorese government warned in a report that the balance of Timor-Leste’s Petroleum Fund, the main source of public expenditure, could fall by 40 per cent by the end of 2026 due to the depletion of oil revenues and unaffordable overdraws to the general state budget.
In the report, the general state budget proposal for 2022, prepared by the Public Finance Committee of the National Parliament, the executive estimated that the expected balance of the fund should fall from US$18 billion at the end of 2021 to around US$11 billion at the end of 2026.
