1$ US Dollar equals $110.72 Jamaican

[Hortical]

$150 by Christmas.....?

[Lazie]

They say it's good for the economy.

[Me]

Once again is pure sufferation. As our input import economy get lick left right and center. Sorry for those sending them pickney to school in the states thinking them scholarship was enough.

[wbvs]

$150 by Christmas.....?

Mi sai it already , mi ah guh sai it again . The Pnp is better organize as a unit but di JLP organize Jamaica Better . Seaga was di best Finance Min... Ja had suh far. Ja Need Better Management , hopefully when the JLP come back in power they make it a two term Manifesto . The 60's & 80's were our two best . Busta & Seaga . The pnp mek alot of Grounds in Constitutional reforms including mekking it legal for jamaican fathers abroad kids to claim ja cit... ,dat nuh mek it .mi memba wen $$ deh a 3,4, 5 & change .

[Islandman]

Must be some PNP apologists who say that. A continually unstable currency is not good for anybody except maybe speculators.

A currency devaluation and the resulting adjustment can be a positive for an economy if it is followed by stability, but that is not what happens in Jamaica.

Our currency is in a constant slow motion crash, nobody can plan with any amount of certainty and investors hate that.

[Hortical]

well said

[Assasin]

Mi done tell them months ago, that this thing need to stop. At this point it better we fix it for a while or do dollarization because them can't control it. The BOJ itself as they are under pressure from the government. Speculation digging in and our export are less even as raw material for farming and other stuff get more expensive for production. Electricity, gas and all input become more expensive. In the short term it is easier to hold on to your dollar and change it to US. Only Hotel and a few other business getting any benefit out of this as Hotel mainly plan in US dollars and short term pay some of their expense in Ja dollars.

The Jamaican debt burden is getting bigger in Jamaican dollars. a fews ago I made a post saying this devaluation need to stop. The government or the BOJ is not even addressing it anymore.

[Gamma]

thanks for the sympathy....would prefer cash though

[Don1]

Once again is pure sufferation. As our input import economy get lick left right and center.

This is correct... this is the core structural problem in Jamaica. The backward private sector's addiction to mere trading in goods or financial instruments ... enabled by decades of backward govt policy

The economy is structurally deformed and dominated by merchants getting rich merely by importing products or other trading.. and living off the margins... For example Mussons has a turnover of ~US$2.4B+ (15% of the economy)... and they produce very little .. mostly trade

That economic deformity is exactly what the IMF/GOJ devaluation regime is designed to fix.... if Jamaicans have sense to apply the right solutions. It cannot be fixed with an overvalued currency and high energy costs

It is now for the private sector to do their part and switch from focusing on mere trading to production for export and import substitution. Which is why the energy input costs must be brought down sharply ASAP.

Jamaica can do the appropriate structural reforms...take the resultant pains.... or forever remain a failed economy where traders rule

Pick unnu choice Jamaicans

[Assasin]

You don't realize that government policy why many in the private sector do trading???

How can the private sector be lazy when Randy's close his store and come a US and now have a mega million dollar business in VP. He could a done it a yard.

Mr Harthowne closed his bakery and block factory round a Golden Spring and him youth them re-invest Golden Krust. The list goes on with the same lazy businessmen who go abroad and reap success.

Why raise cow when tief a go come take it? It easier to import beef.

Why plant coffee when the government collect your money and nuh pay it over???

The list goes on and on.

Environment have to be right for business to grow. You think energy price alone a go dweet???? Devaluation policy has never worked for Jamaica, IMF or no IMF.

We have a far way to go.

One of the question we need fi ask ourselves honestly is

"IF I had no relationship to Jamaica, why would I invest in Jamaica and not Domincan Republic, Barbados, Trinidad or even Haiti." When we can honestly answer that then we can talk bout growing.

[Bruce]

I have a J$500 bill in my desk drawer. I should go to Jamaica while it is still worth something.

[Don1]

Read more carefully next time please

You don't realize that government policy why many in the private sector do trading???
.

I already stated that the private sector's backwardness is enabled by GOJ's historical (protectionist) policy

This is correct... this is the core structural problem in Jamaica. The backward private sector's addiction to mere trading in goods or financial instruments ... enabled by decades of backward govt policy

Unnu cannot have things both ways. Defending an uncompetitive exchange rate by massive borrowing would continue protectionism. Massive borrowing and/or inflated interest rates are the ONLY way the rate can be stabilized in the short run yuteman.... pick yuh Bittah Medicine

Jamaica has to bite the bullet for the next 2-4 years and do the necessary structural adjustments to change the vector of the economy where production sustains a stable currency.... not debt. Or continue the foolishness and shallow yappin

Jamaica's private sector elite and its political elite are cut from the same backward cloth... they have the same corrupt Jamaican DNA strands which trend towards selfishness, myopia and lack of innovation (with a few outliers like Butch Stewart of course)

Time for a new paradigm by BOTH the political class and the business class

[Assasin]

What is uncompetitive??? What is the true value???

If we start producing today and people have more confidence the value will rise. Now you have speculators and people dumping the dollar which makes the value even less. The longer this goes on the less the dollar will value at the end of the day.

Government need to concentrate on giving Jamaican businesses competitive advantages. Devaluing the dollar now leads to more business closure. Government have to do balancing act. Fact is IMF program alone can't do it, business have to plan.

I think one good thing that they shut down was the junior stock exchange as even I was thinking about putting a little bit in a company on it. It helped some legitimate Jamaican companies get capital. Devaluing the dollar has NEVER result in growth for Jamaica in the short or long term. Them have to come better than that. As long as the dollar devaluing long term people will hold the dollar, make a few bucks or park it in US. Check it. The more the dollar devalue, the less we produce, the less we grow. With over 20 cents devaluation we exporting less than 2 years ago. Why???

[Don1]

You display a fundamental lack of knowledge of economics.... and apparently misunderstanding regarding the fact that the IMF sets policy framework now.

As I said before... the ONLY way in the short run to stem the currency slide is a policy of massive debt run up to prop up the dollar and/or high interest rates. With debt/GDP ratio already at 140% ...there is no market or IMF appetite for further debt to prop up the currency... so we're into Bittah Medicine

If you cannot understand that reality ...I cannot waste more time debating this issue

[Assasin]

Massive debt is not the only way to prop it up. who want it prop up? I bet if we get 2% growth right now and some positive indicators the dollar stop sliding.

It has been two years and months and no sign that the dollar is settling off. How much is our dollar value??? Since you understand economics so much, make a guess. If you can't even make a educated guess how can you defend the consistent devaluation???? When is it going to stop??? That is what we people with lack of economic understanding want to know.

1989 at 5.50 to one and now 2014 it is 110 plus. What is the true value??? Just look at the production stats, agriculture and total output between then and now. Where will it end???