Jamaica has earned commendations from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for what has been described as “remarkable” performance

in the Stand-by Arrangement facility. Former Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, on demitting office, was clearly filled with admiration for Jamaica’s commitment to address its debt burden; transform the public sector; and, stimulate private investment.

Citing the commitment to two IMF adjustment programmes under two different government administrations, the outgoing IMF Managing Director said: “Through two programmes, two different administrations with very strong commitment, you have managed to actually create jobs, to reduce the unemployment level to the lowest ever, you’ve reduced debt by 50 percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP), you’ve managed to stabilise inflation and you’ve managed to accumulate reserves,” she said in a recorded message.

The IMF completed its sixth and final review under the Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) in September. The programme with the IMF was scheduled to officially end in November 2019, to everyone’s satisfaction. And the IMF expects that, given the gains made from the fiscal adjustments, Jamaica is on track to reduce debt obligations (from 150% in 2013) to 60% of GDP by fiscal year 2025/26, in line with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Law.
Kudos from the outgoing IMF boss came just four weeks following an item which appeared on the World Bank’s website (news/opinions) under the headline Jamaica has made an ‘extraordinary’ economic turn-around, written by Axel van Trotsenburg in the Miami Herald.

Noting Jamaica’s 16 consecutive quarters of positive economic growth and an upgraded Fitch rating to B+, van Trotsenburg stated that, with the support of the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, Jamaica has started on an ambitious reform programme. ‘These efforts have paid off. Jamaica is now one of the few countries that has successfully cut public debt by the equivalent of half its gross domestic product in a short time frame.’
Jamaica’s most recent interaction with the IMF began in 2013 when a four-year Extended Fund Facility for US$932 million support was signed. This arrangement successfully ended in 2016 and was replaced with the recently concluded Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement in which the ailing economy benefited from a US$1.6 billion injection.

It is against this background and the tacit endorsements from multilateral agencies that current economic development initiatives should
be viewed. —