PM: Gov't should be commended for reduction in poverty rate

 

Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness has responded to critics who have dismissed the poverty data published last week by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) as not being reflective of the current economic challenges facing consumers. 

 

The PIOJ said the country's poverty rate had been halved from 16 per cent in 2021 to 8 per cent in 2023. 

 

Speaking Tuesday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ferry to Rock Pond Pipeline Project in St. Andrew, Dr. Holness argued that his administration should be commended for its economic strategies to tackle poverty.

 

"Now, when it was the other way, when poverty jumped up to the 16 per cent because of the COVID pandemic, that was in every paper, that was the talk. Even though we had the pandemic, nobody cared about that. Government was blamed for it. Now, poverty is down and there will be an attempt to say the figures are not real, is not the government do it, people still a suffer," he lamented. 

 

Dr. Holness acknowledged that while poverty has not been completely eliminated in Jamaica, the progress made in halving the poverty rate must celebrated. 

 

"So, yes, there are still persons who are poor, relatively poor, but we can take pride as a country that we have been able to halve the number of persons who would be considered absolutely poor in Jamaica. That's an achievement that every PNP, every PIP, every no P and every JLP should be proud of," he maintained.