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, we believe, that there has been, in recent days, a fast-track circulation of reports on the paper by Mr Blanchard and his fellow IMF economist Daniel Leigh, as the Cabinet prepared for today's start of a big retreat on the economy.
The most important issue at these discussions at Jamaica House – our preferred location would be one of the uninhabited Pedro Cays off Jamaica's south coast – is the economic support agreement the Government is negotiating with the IMF and the performance targets that are to be tied to it.
