World Bank credits Jamaica for fiscal management, debt reduction

 

The World Bank has credited Jamaica for its fiscal management and debt reduction.

 

While responding to questions posed by Radio Jamaica's Business Reporter Javaughn Keyes, Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, William Maloney, said the country's economic framework has done well to encourage resilience. 

 

"Jamaica has done some superhuman lifting in terms of policy over the last ten years. Jamaica is really the only one that has made major reductions in its debt levels over the last ten years, and that is largely due to their EPOC (Economic Programme Oversight Committee) system of involving many elements of civil society and ensuring transparency in the government's programme, how it's managing the debt. My guess is that those skills will be useful for attacking other problems going forward," he said. 

 

Looking at the region, Mr. Maloney noted that while headwinds still exist, there are clear signs of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

"We're now at 11?ove our 2019 levels of GDP. Unfortunately, we are the slowest recoverers in the world. If you look at Asia, East Asia and South Asia, they're both about a 30?ove where they were before the pandemic. So growth is slow. Our forecasts, as you might have noticed, have changed a little bit, but it's worth highlighting that it's been a fair amount of volatility largely arising from what's happening in the advanced countries." 

 

The World Bank estimates that the region will see a two per cent increase in GDP this year.

 

This reflects a 0.5 per cent upgrade in the outlook compared with earlier this year.