Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Economy
Source: Jamaica Gleaner, February 20, 2007
Ja gets top rating from IMF - Most positive report in 18 years - Davies
The Government is trumpeting
what it describes as the best report on the Jamaican economy, done by officials
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in nearly 20 years.
A preliminary report on the performance of the
economy over the last year was on Friday presented by the IMF team to Finance
and Planning Minister Dr. Omar Davies.
Dr. Davies, who made a presentation to Cabinet
yesterday, told his colleagues that the report was the "most positive"
he had seen from the IMF in 18 years, which covered both his tenure as head of
the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) for four years and as finance minister.
Comprehensive report
He will make a comprehensive report to Parliament
on the IMF's report when he tables the First Supplementary Estimates on February
27.
The Supplementary Estimates for fiscal year
2006/2007, were approved on Monday by Cabinet.
Following its tabling, leader of government
business in the House of Representatives, Dr. Peter Phillips, will convene a
meeting of the finance committee on March 6, after which the House will debate
the estimates.
In its last staff review of the island under
its intensified surveillance project published September last year, the IMF had
given a favourable short-term macroeconomic outlook for the country
Strong performances
At the time of the last report, the IMF noted
that despite improvements in terms of large-scale hotel and infrastructure
investment projects and a buoyant tourism sector, the country remained
vulnerable, as it had failed to achieve several performance targets.
Last Thursday, the PIOJ reported that the
Jamaican economy continued to show "solid signs of growth" for the
October to December quarter.
It pointed to a 2.7 per cent growth in real
gross domestic product, when compared with the corresponding period of 2005.
Strong performances were recorded in the agriculture, mining and quarrying and
electricity and water sectors.
However, the manufacturing sector declined during
the period under review.
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