IMF Rep Lauds Government’s Efforts To Preserve And Bolster Economic Gains

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative, Dr. Constant Lonkeng Ngouana, is lauding the Government for initiating measures to preserve and bolster the economic gains Jamaica has recorded over the last six years.

This, he notes, under the country’s Economic Reform Programme (ERP).

These safeguards, which Dr. Lonkeng Ngouana contends are imperative in facilitating Jamaica’s exit from the IMF’s financial support in November, include the Bill currently before Parliament, seeking to make the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) independent and refocusing its mandate on price stability; and the proposed Fiscal Council that will serve as the post-IMF era guardian of the country’s fiscal responsibility law, which stipulates that the debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio should be no higher than 60 per cent by the 2025/26 fiscal year.

“We have also seen the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service thinking and initiating natural disaster risk financing. Jamaica has, indeed, made so much gains over the past six years that it would be unfortunate to see those wiped out by a hurricane, God forbid. The Government has been very proactive, arguably leading the way among Caribbean countries in thinking about disaster risk financing,”