Sunday, September 13, 2015
Kevin Richards (left), vice-president of sales and marketing, speaks with Dr Bert van Selm at the Sterling Asset Management briefing.
Jamaica is on a positive economic track under the current International Monetary Fund programme, according to Dr Bert van Selm, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative in Jamaica.
“After very strong performance over two and a half years of the programme, Jamaica is very well poised for higher performing growth,” said Van Selm. He was speaking on the future of Jamaica’s economy and the current lending arrangement with the IMF at the Sterling Asset Management (SAM) Investor Briefing last Wednesday.
Jamaica currently has a four-year lending arrangement with the IMF which was approved in May 2013 as a part of the Economic Reform Programme.
The projection of 1.5 per cent growth for the current fiscal year was an indicator that many of Jamaica’s financial woes are being resolved. “We already see that the tide is turned…early on we had tightening of fiscal policy and now we’re starting to think about a slight loosening of fiscal policy,” said Van Selm. This would result in an emphasis on increased spending and lower tax revenue to boost economic activity.
“The US is the main source of Jamaica’s remittances [and] tourists, so it is very important for Jamaica,” said Van Selm, in a Sterling news release. Additionally, across the globe, the Chinese slowdown puts pressure on all commodity prices, especially oil. And while Jamaica still has a bit of a journey before it finds economic resolution, the right elements are aligning to rebuild Jamaica.
Despite the positive economic reviews from Van Selm, Jamaica is still faced with challenges, such as crime and the public wages to GDP ratio.
“In light of Jamaica’s ongoing arrangements with the IMF and other multilaterals and the fiscal consolidation successes to date, we thought it appropriate to have [Dr. Bert van Selm] as our guest speaker,” said Charles Ross, CEO of SAM.
“The local market has been affected by some fairly significant rate changes,” said Ross in reference to local dollar repurchase agreements (repos). Increased costs have led SAM to disband the issuing of local dollar repos and focus on offering only US dollar repos.
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