President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, has praised Jamaica on the progress made in reforming its macroeconomic environment. “We believe that Jamaica is turning around, and I think this is an example for the rest of the Caribbean that when a country decides to bite the bullet, I think the collective part of the international community...

As part of efforts to minimise the impact of climate change on fishing livelihoods, a campaign will be designed and executed in the upcoming fiscal year. A sum of $22.8 million has been set aside in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure to facilitate this undertaking under the Fisheries Ecosystem Adaptation Strategies and Technologies project. The Estimates were tabled recently in...

Finance and Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the Government and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are exploring the possible expansion of the IDB’s private sector loan portfolio in Jamaica. While noting that the private sector has access to significant low-cost single-digit interest rates, citing the IDB’s partial credit guarantee loan programme for micro and small enterprises disbursed through the...

The Government has allocated $88.84 billion in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, for debt repayment this year. Of this sum, the lion’s share of $58.6 billion will go towards repaying Jamaican dollar benchmark investment notes issued under the Jamaica Debt Exchange/National Debt Exchange (JDX/NDX) initiatives. The second largest provision of $17 billion is earmarked...

A two-day meeting of Caribbean governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) gets underway on Monday (Feb. 26), at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston. The seventh annual Caribbean Governors’ Meeting is being hosted by the Bank of Jamaica under the theme: ‘Jump Caribbean.’ It will focus on helping the Caribbean to embrace the digital revolution as a developmental...

The deadline for the Government’s Special Early Retirement Programme (SERP) has been extended to February 28, 2018. The SERP is a voluntary separation initiative that allows public-sector employees, aged 50 to 59, under the non-contributory government pension scheme to take up early retirement through an incentivised package. Speaking at a JIS Think Tank recently, Deputy Financial Secretary, Strategic Human Resource...

A sum of $735.5 million has been allocated to continue the Strategic Public Sector Transformation Project this year. This is outlined in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project, being implemented by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, is seeking to strengthen public resource management and provide support for select State institutions...

Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor, Brian Wynter, says recent fluctuations in the exchange rate have resulted from greater demand for foreign currency and not a shortfall in supply. Noting that the exchange rate appreciated by 3.8 per cent during the October to December 2017 quarter, Mr. Wynter said this trend continued into the first week of January 2018, adding that...

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) will be issuing 64 bank guarantees to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the upcoming fiscal year. This exercise is to be carried out under the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded Credit Enhancement Programme. A sum of $250 million has been set aside in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure for this purpose. The project, which...