IMF gives positive review on Jamaica's economic performance

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given Jamaica strong endorsement after reviewing the country's performance under their loan agreement. The IMF concluded a week-long assessment Wednesday to determine if Jamaica had met its requirements for a 932-million-U.S. dollar loan to bail the country out of its debt crisis. "Overall policy implementation under the program is strong. All quantitative performance targets and indicative targets for end-September were met, including the floor on social spending," IMF mission chief for Jamaica Jan Kees Martijn said. "All structural benchmarks to date have also been met in a timely manner, with the exception of the tabling of fiscal incentives legislation, which was subject to a minor delay," he said. The country's economy witnessed a 0.9-percent growth in the July to September quarter year-on-year, while consumer price inflation increased to 10.5 percent in September, according to IMF statement. "Net international reserves have fluctuated around 900 million U.S. dollars in recent months, with gross reserves at 1.7 billion U.S. dollars by the end of October 2013, equivalent to three months of import cover. The execution of the 2013-14 budget has been broadly on track," the statement said. Meanwhile, IMF said the critical challenge for the Caribbean country was to support economic growth while continuing to undertake fiscal adjustment. Those preliminary understandings were subject to approval by the IMF's Management and Executive Board, Martijn said. Upon approval, 19.97 million SDR (about 30 million dollars) would be made available to Jamaica. Jamaica is scheduled to undergo 15 reviews in total over the life of the four-year bailout program, the primary goal of which is to reduce the country's heavy debt load from more than 140 percent of the GDP to 96 percent by 2020.