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The Government has been lauded for its debt exchange programme initiative by the President of the Jamaica Bankers Association, Minna Israel. She was speaking at the launch of the Jamaica Debt Exchange programme today (Jan 14) at the Bank of Jamaica's auditorium in Kingston. Miss Israel said: "We hope that we will see the economic growth and development programme. We...

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, issued the following statement on Jamaica today: "IMF staff and the Jamaican authorities today reached agreement, subject to final approval by the IMF Executive Board, on an economic programme supported by an SDR 802.5 million (about US$1.25 billion) loan under a 27-month Stand-By Arrangement. The programme could go to the...

Jamaica has agreed to an intensive and extensive programme of monitoring and surveillance by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to ensure that it meets the targets of the new loan agreement, Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding said Wednesday night (January 13). "There is data that we will have to transmit on a daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly basis. We...

The critical objectives set out in Vision 2030 Jamaica for macro-economic stability are in keeping with strategies that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will consider in its programme for Jamaica. This is the word from Programme Director for the Plan Development Unit at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Mrs. Leila Palmer. She said that the strict framework of the...

Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding says Government has signed off on the details of the programme to be signed with the International Monetary Fund in the letter of intent. Coming out of this past weekend's Cabinet retreat, the Prime Minister announced that he will be addressing the nation in a national broadcast on Wednesday (Jan 13). The Prime Minister...

Employers and self-employed persons are reminded that Thursday, January 14, 2010 is the deadline to file their Employers Annual Returns for PAYE (Income Tax) and Education Tax. Persons are encouraged to use the Tax Administration's new and easy online option to file and pay statutory deductions. As the Government moves to make it easier for persons to pay taxes, the...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon Audley Shaw, has given assurances that most cash advances from the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) will be repaid by the end of the fiscal year in March. Since November, the Ministry of Finance has received over $23 billion from the Central Bank, of which $18 billion was used to purchase Government bonds....

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Honourable Audley Shaw, has announced that the Letter of Intent to access a US$1.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will be ready today (January 6). Jamaica is seeking the standby loan facility from the IMF, due to severe erosion of its foreign exchange earnings, especially in terms of bauxite/alumina exports...

The Government wishes to make it clear that there will be no retroactivity in the application of the General Consumption Tax (GCT) on electricity. A statement from the Ministry of Finance notes that there was never any intention to apply the special GCT rate of 10% to bills issued in January, since the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) bills its...

The second tranche of the two-tiered income tax threshold increase for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) contributors and pensioners for the 2009/10 fiscal year, takes effect on Friday, January 1, 2010. The tax threshold will move from its initial increase of $320,736, which was effected on July 1, 2009, to $441,168. The new figure will double the level of just...

The agro-processing sector accounted for 30 per cent of the total loans disbursed by the National Export Import (Ex-Im) Bank of Jamaica during the 2008/09 financial year. This amounted to some $1.96 billion, and was the highest category of loans disbursed. The distribution and services sector accounted for $1.92 billion, while manufacturing followed with $1.54 billion. The food and beverage,...

The National Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank of Jamaica is reporting that it achieved a significant milestone during the 2008/09 fiscal period, with its loan usage (local and foreign), totaling $6.5 billion. This was an increase of more than 35 per cent over the $4.8 billion achieved for the previous year. "This performance was particularly gratifying, as the Bank faced numerous challenges...