Jamaica to Maintain Fiscal Discipline Following Successful Completion of IMF Programme

Jamaica has successfully completed its financial engagement with the International Monetary Fund, IMF. The country entered into a three-year Precautionary Standby Agreement with the IMF which began in 2016 and prior to that the Extended Fund Facility. During the final mission review press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister on Wednesday (September 18), Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared that Jamaica is now viewed as a global example of a country that has successfully executed difficult economic policies under the IMF agreement. “I believe that we have learnt our lessons, I believe that we have internalised a culture of fiscal responsibility and I believe that Government’ will be strong enough to face the pressures that will come as a result of Jamaica’s completion of the IMF agreement,” said Prime Minister Holness. The Prime Minister said the lessons learnt from the tests by the IMF should not only be limited to economic matters. “It is in some ways unfortunate that consensus only came because of crisis but that is oftentimes a good starting point because in crisis there is opportunity and that Jamaica took the opportunity of crisis to unite around this concept of fiscal responsibility it is good for us, we are now reaping the benefit of that,” stated Prime Minister Holness. In that regard, Prime Minister Holness said while this is a milestone achievement for Jamaica it is not the end of its fiscal responsibility. “The real test after this with the IMF out of the room in some ways is whether or not we can maintain and carry through the fiscal discipline that we have committed to and successfully committed to over the last ten years. My answer to that is yes we can and we will because over the last ten years of IMF, ten years of IMF programmes, I believe that the culture of fiscal responsibility has now become institutionalized in the Ministry of Finance and generally throughout the Government, I also believe that the political class of the country is on both sides committed to fiscal responsibility,” asserted Prime Minister Holness, In the meantime, the Prime Minister reiterated the importance of the moment noting that the successful completion of the IMF engagement is a major achievement in Jamaica’s political economy and development. “The celebration today is that we have worked consciously, deliberately, instrumentally, we’ve worked with transparency, we’ve worked diligently to ensure that we meet all the targets that we set for ourselves,” said Prime Minister Holness.