Jamaica
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EDITORIAL – The IMF, Cabinet and the retreat
KINGSTON, Jamaica – We are not as concerned as most that Jamaica hasn't yet concluded a borrowing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For failure to conclude a deal will further narrow our options in the financial markets and perhaps force us into a cold-turkey kicking of our borrowing habit. Our greater fear is that the Government lacks the…
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Cabinet issues directive to complete IMF talks
KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) last night indicated that Cabinet has received an update from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) negotiating team and given directions for transmission to the IMF staff in order to bring about a conclusion to the negotiations. The update was received during day one of a special three-day meeting of the…
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PM underscores need to sign agreement with IMF
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller says it is “necessary” for Jamaica to secure an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as her Cabinet ended the first day of a three-day meeting here. A brief statement issued at the end of the first day on Thursday said that Prime Minister Simpon Miller said the agreement with…
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Forget the politics and do what needs to be done
KINGSTON, Jamaica – MR Delano Franklyn may well be right. Perhaps the Chicago Tribune was unfair in its adverse characterisation of the Jamaican economy, using Greece as a sort of measuring stick. What is not in question, though, is that our economy is in an awful state — badly in need of restructuring. This, as a result of a downward…
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Zacca: Jamaica heading for economic crisis without IMF deal
KINGSTON, Jamaica – PRIVATE Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) President Christopher Zacca says Jamaica will be diving deep into an economic crisis if the country continues to be without an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement. What's more, Zacca figures that the longer it takes to seal a deal, the closer the country will get to falling over its own fiscal…
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Chávez-type strength key to PetroCaribe
KINGSTON, Jamaica – WITH SPECULATIONS rife over whether Venezuela would continue the PetroCaribe arrangement if Hugo Chávez is replaced as president, Jamaica's energy minister says willpower such as the ailing leader's is a necessary ingredient to the survival of the deal. “I think there is commitment on the part of the administration (to continue it), but because there was opposition…
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EDITORIAL – No more procrastination, PM
KINGSTON, Jamaica – There will be temptation among skittish members of the Government, we fear, to slink behind the recent acknowledgement by the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard that the Fund underestimated the potentially deflationary impact of its policies in Greece to escape having to make the hard choices on adjustment in Jamaica. It is hardly coincidental,…
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PNP, JLP rap US newspaper editorial
KINGSTON, Jamaica – AN editorial in the Chicago Tribune — one of the largest and most respected newspapers in the United States — which described the Jamaican economy as being in worse shape than that of Greece and an example of what could happen to countries that continue to pile up debt, has been viewed as inaccurate from representatives of…
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Is Jamaica the Greece of the Western Hemisphere?
KINGSTON, Jamaica – YESTERDAY the Chicago Tribune (President Obama's major hometown newspaper and one of the top five newspapers in the US) wrote an editorial with the title “Jamaica's Debt Hurricane”, subtitled “The Greece of the Western Hemisphere”. The editorial argued that Jamaica, like Greece, “illustrates the catastrophic effects of borrowing way too much, and the painful choices that follow”.…
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EDITORIAL – Jamaica’s fiscal cliff
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Judging from last Sunday evening's hunky-dory speech by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, our Government may not have noticed that Jamaica is hanging precariously over, according to the American coinage, a fiscal cliff. Or, the PM has deliberately chosen to ignore the reality and sell Jamaicans a false sense of security. In the absence of ignorance of…
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