Opposition challenges PM's comment regarding debt reduction

By Kimone Witter    

 

The opposition People's National Party is challenging a comment made by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Parliament on Tuesday that the country's debt-to-GDP ratio was 145 per cent when he took office in 2016.

 

Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson says the statement was false as the debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 115 per cent when the PNP left office, after a period of careful fiscal management.

 

Mr. Robinson said it is erroneous for the Prime Minister to suggest that his administration alone achieved the current debt levels. 

 

"In 2012, the country's debt-to-GDP ratio was 145 per cent. It was reduced to 115 per cent in 2016 when the PNP left office. It is therefore wrong for the Prime Minister to suggest that his party reduced it from 145 to its current level now. In fact, it is worth noting that in 2007 when the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) assumed office, the debt to GDP ratio was 107 per cent, and in the five years when they left it, it went to 145. So the PNP actually started the downward trajectory of reducing our debt to GDP, which has continued with the present administration," he insisted. 

 

Jamaica's debt-to-GDP ratio was 75.5 per cent in 2023, with the World Bank projecting that public debt will remain on a downward trajectory, declining to 65.9 per cent of GDP by 2026.