IMF resident rep lauds gov't's efforts to preserve 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.

These safeguards, which 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,” he told JIS News.

The IMF Representative added that “we do believe the main building blocks are being put in place to ensure that the exit from the IMF is smooth; Jamaica is absolutely ready. It has been a gradual process, characterised by six years of sound policymaking with broad-based social consensus”.

Meanwhile, Lonkeng Ngouana believes that Jamaica’s performance under the ERP has “exceeded expectations”.

He points to notable achievements by Jamaica under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility and Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement programmes over the period, including a “huge” reduction in public debt from 147 per cent of GDP at the end of March 2013 to 95 per cent at the end of March 2019; significant foreign reserves, which have risen from less than US$1 billion to more than US$3 billion; declining inflation, which has fallen from double to low single digits; and unemployment which fell from 16.3 per cent in April 2013 to 7.8 per cent this year.

While acknowledging that growth is “not where we all want it to be”, Lonkeng Ngouana is, nonetheless, optimistic that Jamaica can, over time, achieve higher levels of sustainable inclusive growth.

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