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...

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 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...

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...

The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service will continue implementation of the Fiscal Administration Modernisation Programme this year with a $1.32-billion allocation in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project, which initially ran from 2011 to 2016, is intended to support the Administration in attaining fiscal sustainability by strengthening the Ministry’s institutional capacity...

Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor, Brian Wynter, says the rate of inflation is projected to remain within the range of four to six per cent over the next 12 months. This comes in the wake of data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), which show the out-turn falling from 5.2 per cent in December 2017 to 4.8 per cent...

Work will continue to strengthen the Financial Services Commission’s (FSC) operations this year through the provision of an additional $11.7 million. This is contained 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, aims to improve the FSC’s operational and technological capacity to undertake...