Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the country’s rating has been upgraded from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’ by international rating agency, Fitch, as a result of macroeconomic improvements. He said these include further reduction in unemployment to a 10-year low at 10.3 per cent; stabilisation of the Jamaican dollar, which revalued to $125.50 against the US dollar...

The Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) plans to further deepen its engagements with clients and stakeholders through a special traders forum that will be held annually, beginning in the 2018/19 fiscal year. It will bring together interests involved in the wide spectrum of trade, inclusive of export, import, logistics, warehousing and haulage to educate, sensitize and heighten their awareness of the...

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has lauded the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) on its performance in 2017, during which the main market’s listings yielded returns averaging 50 per cent, with the junior market averaging 43.9 per cent. “That’s amazing. I congratulate the Jamaica Stock Exchange for its stellar performance. It shows that there is confidence in the economy,...

State Minister in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Rudyard Spencer, has proposed that public-sector workers change their traditional approach to collective bargaining and select one group annually for negotiations. Speaking at a forum on public-sector wage negotiations, hosted by the Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona,...

Finance and Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the Government is targeting the creation 50,000 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) jobs in a “pretty short time.” Speaking at Mayberry Investments Limited’s monthly investor forum at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston on January 17, the Minister  noted that the BPO sector has been growing “very aggressively” and has generated...

The Government of Jamaica has signed an agreement with the Republic of Italy for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and for the prevention of tax evasion and avoidance. The signing took place at the Ministry of Finance and Public Service’s Heroes Circle offices in Kingston on Friday, January 19. Portfolio Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw,...

Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says no new taxes will be included in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure He says revenue inflows have been doing “fairly well” this year, noting that the out-turn at the end of December 2017 was $13 billion ahead of projections. “Happily, with this trajectory, it is not the Government’s plan to...