Cabinet Continues Intense Deliberations on New Budget

The Cabinet today, in addition to regular agenda items, continued intense deliberations on issues related to the 2009-2010 Budget.
These include the global economic crisis, its negative impact on the island and the steps that must be taken to deal with the challenges. In the discussions, Cabinet took note of the worsening international situation as reflected in last weekend’s report by the World Bank. This report indicated that developing countries will face a shortfall of US$700-billion, with private capital inflows to emerging markets collapsing to 17% of 2007 levels.
Unemployment levels continue to rise in the United States where job losses have reached a high of 4.4 million persons.
Cabinet is formulating measures designed to cope with the effects of these developments on the Jamaican economy.