When the government presents the midterm budget next week, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the country will get a real picture of exactly how the country’s account books look and according to the nation’s chief the truth might not be what most people want to hear.

Prime Minister Christie said the country has a very difficult situation ahead of it and in terms of the mid-term budget the government plans to be open and honest with Bahamians.

“We plan to give a frank assessment of the economy, of the weaknesses in the economy and of the efforts we have to make to stabilise the economy and most certainly to affect saving and to curtail expenditure to try to improve and increase revenue.

“Essentially we’re going to put forth a midterm report that is going to allow Bahamians to truly understand the extent to which we are really grappling with some issues.”

The Bahamas’ deficit to date stands at a whopping $700 million, but despite the numbers the prime minister said he remains “cautiously optimistic” about the future.

“We know the extent to which we have to engender growth in the economy and there’s no easy way to it, with 30,000-plus persons being unemployed and with there being negligible growth rate we have to improve in all areas and I’m hoping to see some significant progress in the investment area for a generation of jobs.”

Prime Minister Christie was tightlipped on how much the government plans to borrow in the mid-term budget.