Business
Jamaica: IMF loan deal later this year
IMF concerns about tax reform, the need for cuts in the public sector payroll and pension reform in Jamaica were among outstanding issues to be resolved, Phillips said.
He also said the government had secured funding to honor a 200 million euro (US$ 245 million) payment due on July 27. The money was raised from the domestic market, he said.
A 27 month standby agreement worth US$1.27 billion expired in May, although it effectively lapsed after the previous government was unable to meet performance targets set by the IMF.
The IMF has said Jamaica’s debt burden stood at 126 percent of gross domestic product GDP last year. However, its economy has begun to inch forward after struggling during the global recession.
The IMF is predicting that Jamaica will record 2.4 percent growth this year, after growing 1.5 percent during the past year according to the Planning Institute of Jamaica. The growth was the first annual expansion in real GDP since 2007, driven largely by demand for bauxite and alumina as well as increased agricultural production.
A new People’s National Party (PNP) administration that took office in January, led by Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, has said that although the terms of a new agreement will be tough, the administration will try to protect the most vulnerable in a society where poverty levels have risen to 21 percent of the population from 9 percent four years ago.
