Bunting: Jamaica on the verge of technical recession

 

Opposition Senator Peter Bunting on Friday argued that the government is painting a false picture on the true state of the economy and warned that Jamaica is on the verge of a recession.

 

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) recently reported that business and consumer confidence on the economy has increased in recent months.

 

But delivering his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate Friday, Mr. Bunting argued that the economy is not in good shape.

 

"Since the initial COVID recovery, the economy has been slowing for eight or nine quarters. It stalled in the quarter ending June 2024, and then declined by three and a half per cent in the September quarter. And while everything is being blamed on [Hurricane] Beryl, the fact is that trend, that trajectory, was set two years earlier. The economy is projected to continue its decline in the December quarter, and for the 2024 calendar year overall, it's projected to shrink. When these projections are confirmed in a couple weeks' time, the economy will be what the analysts and the economists call a technical recession - that is two consecutive quarters of negative growth," he outlined. 

 

Senate Bunting cited data from STATIN to support his claim.

 

"When we...drill down into the various sectors, agriculture, forestry and fishing [is] down 12.5 per cent, mining and quarrying down 17 per cent, manufacturing down 4 per cent, and the construction sector, which has been declining for four consecutive quarters...prior to September, is down 3.3 per cent. We've seen from the start of the year sales of construction inputs have declined, NHT housing starts have also declined, hotels and restaurants," the senator pointed out.