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IMF predicts weak growth in the region to continue
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued sobering news for Jamaica and other CARICOM countries.
It says growth in the region will continue to be weak and as a result job creation will be slow.
The Fund says policymakers need to act quickly to prevent further deceleration in growth but that comment comes against the backdrop of a global economy with a bleak outlook and further weakening is forecast to hit countries such as Jamaica.
The IMF stressed that there are no quick fixes to the problems which face the region and they had a warning for potential governments and governments alike about trying to spend their way out of the economic mess.
“In countries with already high deficits and high debt levels it does not seem the most adequate time to launch a programme to support growth except at the same time you are working on the revenue side and you work on the expenditure side, fundamentally in the area of capital expenditure to improve infrastructure and growth going forward,” said an IMF official.
The IMF didn’t name a particular programme but the comment seems to take aim at initiatives such as the Opposition’s Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme, JEEP.
The Fund says faced with the problems of high debt and growing public borrowing it cannot put out a prescription that we should find a balance between public spending and growth because such a balance is not there.
It further stressed that what policies may have worked in 2008 when the recession started will not necessarily work now.
For Jamaica it says the key issue is getting back on track where there is a divergence from the original programme to create the environment in which growth can take place and it says this will happen as soon as issues such as the cost of the public sector and the trajectory of the public debt are sorted out.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued sobering news for Jamaica and other CARICOM countries.
It says growth in the region will continue to be weak and as a result job creation will be slow.
The Fund says policymakers need to act quickly to prevent further deceleration in growth but that comment comes against the backdrop of a global economy with a bleak outlook and further weakening is forecast to hit countries such as Jamaica.
The IMF stressed that there are no quick fixes to the problems which face the region and they had a warning for potential governments and governments alike about trying to spend their way out of the economic mess.
“In countries with already high deficits and high debt levels it does not seem the most adequate time to launch a programme to support growth except at the same time you are working on the revenue side and you work on the expenditure side, fundamentally in the area of capital expenditure to improve infrastructure and growth going forward,” said an IMF official.
The IMF didn’t name a particular programme but the comment seems to take aim at initiatives such as the Opposition’s Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme, JEEP.
The Fund says faced with the problems of high debt and growing public borrowing it cannot put out a prescription that we should find a balance between public spending and growth because such a balance is not there.
It further stressed that what policies may have worked in 2008 when the recession started will not necessarily work now.
For Jamaica it says the key issue is getting back on track where there is a divergence from the original programme to create the environment in which growth can take place and it says this will happen as soon as issues such as the cost of the public sector and the trajectory of the public debt are sorted out.
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