What’s really going between IMF and Jamaica ?

[Skeng DX]

What is the status on the negotiations ?

Why is the negotiations is taking so long?

Why is the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister not speaking to us on this most critical issue?

Dr Peter Phillips was at the IMF last week, will he be making a statement to parliament?

St Kitts and Nevis recently received debt forgiveness from Britain after approaching the Paris Club, will Jamaica be looking at something similar from its creditors?

The NIR is bleeding due to the fact that the government cannot get money due to the lack of a standby agreement, so given this, will the NIR be depleted in short order.

Mr Minister we need you to talk to us.

[Assasin]

Skeng is this you asking or you took it from somewhere else?

[Bricktop]

Skeng is this you asking or you took it from somewhere else?

When you ever see SkengDong have an original thought?

[Skeng DX]

When you ever see SkengDong have an original thought?

stop watch THE "DONG"



http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dong

[Skeng DX]

http://commonsenseja.wordpress.com/2...f-and-jamaica/

[Assasin]

Thanks, just wondering.

[Muadib]

you must be a comedian..

[Lazie]

Strange ... the thread started at 8:16 am ... and all now no one have anything to say about the issue. I bet if it was something trivial like who breed Yendi ... everybody would have an opinion? No wonder out of 3 million Jamaicans we stuck wid Portia as PM. One fool leading many.

[Lazie]

When man never have nothing fi duh, everyday him in front a mike a run him mouth. Now dog ketch up wid the cyar ... the hero nuh have a clue.

[Plush]

No IMF deal likely before autumn
Published: Wednesday | May 30, 2012 Comments 0

Dr Peter Phillips, minister of finance, planning and public service, at a breakfast meeting with Gleaner editors and reporters on Tuesday, May 29. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
Despite an austerity budget and the initial stabs at tax reforms he delivered last week, Jamaica is unlikely to conclude an economic support agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before October or November, finance minister Peter Phillips has confirmed.

Stung by the failure of the previous administration to aggressively pursue fiscal reform under the standby agreement, the Fund apparently wants credible evidence of the new government's willingness to push through economically tough decisions.

"That's about right," Phillips agreed Tuesday, when asked the mostly likely timeline for a deal with the IMF after a working breakfast with Gleaner editors and reporters.

"It is not an immediate thing," he said. "We have months more (of negotiations)."

The previous Jamaica Labour Party administration in 2010 entered a 27-month, US$1.27-billion standby agreement with the IMF, which should have concluded this May. Within a year, however, the agreement was falling apart under the weight of government's inability to meet fiscal targets, as well as deliver on tax, pension and employment reforms.

Last week, as he unveiled a J$19.36-billion tax package to help close a J$275-billion gap in his 2012-13 budget, Phillips told Parliament that the IMF had not set down preconditions for a new agreement. Yet, he declared there were "important actions that we will have to carry out before an agreement with the Fund will be entertained by its board".

While he again insisted that the IMF had asked government for "no specific prior conditions" before an agreement, Phillips suggested that "a white paper on tax reform" was one of the things that would probably help smooth the path to an agreement.

"They would probably like to see a wage agreement and action on a wage agreement and pension reform," he said in post-breakfast comments.

The IMF had pressed to the government to pull down the public sector wage bill from nearly 12 per cent of gross domestic product to around nine per cent, but the prospect of reaching that target was shot when the administration agreed to paying outstanding increases and adjustments that resulted from the reclassification of teachers.

The IMF expected that concession to pay outstanding increases would grow the wage bill by 2.3 per cent of GDP at a point where Government should be looking to contract salaries.

Phillips' is negotiating with public-sector unions and has apparently floated the possibility of reinstituting wage freeze, similar to one that was in place in the early 2000s - rather than job cuts.

With regard to taxes, his budget contained some measures to widen the net, including lowering general consumption tax by one percentage point to 16.5 per cent and applying the rate to a wider range of items.

Comprehensive overhaul

But there was not the comprehensive overhaul that was expected to have been in place by now, when the previous government published a green paper on the issue a year ago.

Debate on tax reform was slowed down by last December's general election, but Phillips repeated Tuesday that the overhaul of the system was to be rolled out over three years, with the next major step to be the publication of the white paper.

The previous government also published a green paper on public pension reform, on which there has already been some technical discussion, but not robust public debate.

At the breakfast meeting, Phillips stressed that the idea of these reforms ought not be taken as IMF conditionalities, but rather as important moves to begin to deal with an unsustainable debt of J$1.66 trillion.

"If we do not accept it (programme of reform)," he said, "we must accept what the risks are."

[Plush]

IS there more to be said..Mi Bredrin Lazie, you remember when your party was in power and they made statements and people kept asking and you pointed to statements they already made and that no update was necessary..Well Phillips said Autumn

[Lazie]

IS there more to be said..Mi Bredrin Lazie, you remember when your party was in power and they made statements and people kept asking and you pointed to statements they already made and that no update was necessary..Well Phillips said Autumn

Since the budget read how meetings Phillips had with the IMF? After those meetings how many times has he updated the country? For one who ran on being transparent .. he has gone awfully quiet.

The previous PM and Shaw was always updating the country via Parliament, address to the nation or interviews.

We cannot hear from the PM as she have nothing to say about anything meaningful. Reminds me of many here. Peter Phillips has suddenly gone silent. And nuh tell what he said bout autumn ... there were more than one meetings with the IMF since then. Shouldn't the nation be updated ... or should it be treated as PNP business?

[Willi]

To be fair, they said in 2 weeks back in Jan/Feb and that was a fantasy.

We are up a creek with no paddle.

[Lazie]

To be fair, they said in 2 weeks back in Jan/Feb and that was a fantasy.

We are up a creek with no paddle.

As fi dat. Mi notice the so called Truth Crusaders stop call people liar. I guess dem sell out tuh.

[Plush]

Who said two weeks..Portia or Peter?...You all know Portia nuh have nuh sense...Portia won on popularity and nothing else....They did go back on their word even though they can argue otherwise..Politricks..They said they would renegotiate an agreement..They have been renegotiating something..just not completed yet...see the play on words..
That said, the verdict is still out on Phillips..he has not done anything I've been impressed with but there is also nothing that I can say where he made any material blunders. In tough times like these, I hope he is pulling for all the help he can get.

taken from my article above
Stung by the failure of the previous administration to aggressively pursue fiscal reform under the standby agreement, the Fund apparently wants credible evidence of the new government's willingness to push through economically tough decisions.

"That's about right," Phillips agreed Tuesday, when asked the mostly likely timeline for a deal with the IMF after a working breakfast with Gleaner editors and reporters.

"It is not an immediate thing," he said. "We have months more (of negotiations)."

And I've seen reports of delays of discussions and meetings since then