PM Assures Creditors: Jamaica’s Debts will be Paid

Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding has assured Jamaica’s creditors that the country will not compromise its record of repaying its debts.
“Jamaica has had an unblemished record of repaying its debts. I want to affirm, today, that we have no intention of allowing that valuable reputation to be compromised,” Mr. Golding told Sunday’s annual conference of his governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) at the National Arena in Kingston.
Mr. Golding also assured holders of Government bonds that contractual obligations to them remain “inviolable”. However, the Prime Minister lamented that the country’s interest rates do not need to be as high as they are.
“We cannot by a stroke of a pen, or by legislation, mandate interest rates to go down. But they can come down and they must come down,” Mr. Golding said.
He explained that the effort would require the support of stakeholders in the market, and that discussions were already taking place, “for there is a clear mutual benefit in seeing the Government’s fiscal and monetary programme placed on a path that is sustainable, credible and conducive to investment and growth.”
“No one can benefit in the long term, if the economy continues to fail. The multilateral institutions have pledged their support. The details are being fine-tuned and that is very much a part of the current discussions taking place with the (International Monetary Fund) IMF,” he said.