PNP rejects Holness' claim that JLP 'did not inherit a growing economy'

The Opposition People's National Party (PNP) has rejected as misleading Prime Minister Andrew Holness' statement that his administration did not inherit a growing economy.

In an address at a party meeting on Sunday, Holness said his government has created the economy which has allowed for current infrastructure projects and prevented tax increases.

However, in a release to the media on Monday, the PNP said its tenure from 2012 to 2016 was the foundation for the country's current macroeconomic stability.

Opposition Spokesman on Finance and the Public Service, Julian Robinson, said in 2011 "the PNP inherited an economy teetering on the brink of collapse" and that "an economic meltdown seemed inevitable".

He said major policy missteps, coupled with the collapse of the Stand-By Agreement with the International Monetary Fund in 2010, under the then Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government, severely damaged international confidence in Jamaica's economy and severed access to critical financing.

Cleveland Tomlinson, the junior shadow spokesman on finance, noted that at the end of 2011, the economy was declining, with a growth rate of negative 0.6 per cent and that the PNP managed to turn this around to a growth rate of 1.4 per cent by 2016.

"This growth occurred alongside a significant reduction in the inflation rate, from 7.56 per cent inherited from the JLP to 3.68 per cent by the end of our term. Upon taking office, the PNP also faced critically low gross foreign reserves of around US$0.9 billion, sufficient for only about 6 weeks of imports, far below the recommended 12 weeks. By the end of our term in 2016, the reserves had significantly improved to nearly US$3 billion, covering a minimum of 20 weeks of imports and reflecting a significantly healthier economic state," Tomlinson stated.

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