EDITORIAL - Aubyn Hill's delicate mandate

That the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) needs economic policy heft is obvious. Which is why we have been urging its leader, Andrew Holness, to appoint a strategy team to shore up his own efforts and those of his shadow finance minister, Audley Shaw.

In this regard, we welcome Mr Holness' announcement on Monday of the party's Economic Advisory Council, chaired by the banker and business commentator, Aubyn Hill.

Indeed, it is a strategy that Mr Holness, should, as we have suggested, employ in other areas of policy. For, as this newspaper previously argued, it is urgent, in the midterm of the Simpson Miller administration, to "get down to the serious business of formulating policy" and credibly position itself as a government in-waiting. Up to now, the JLP's responses to government policy, across a range of subjects, have largely been off-the-cuff statements, with little or no foundation in data, and absent of critical analysis.

With regard to Mr Holness' economic council, no one would question the appropriateness of any of the four-member core group named by the JLP leader. Mr Hill has had a successful international career as a banker, as has Fayval Williams, who was recently named the JLP's deputy shadow finance minister. Patrick Casserly is a successful entrepreneur in the IT sector. Colin Williams, a university survey and research specialist, is the unknown quantity, especially with the general public.

We, however, look forward to the other appointees/recruits promised by Messrs Holness and Hill. For while Mr Hill has well-developed ideas about economic management, which he is not shy to offer, the team, so far, appears thin in macroeconomic and fiscal management expertise. There are points where entrepreneurial instincts, fiscal realities and a range of competing interests will intersect and require resolution.

Among Mr Hill's first challenges will be how his team frames Jamaica's current relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and packages it for articulation by the party. The JLP has a problem on this front, obvious from the uncertainty with which it approaches the issue: it sees political advantage in attacking the programme, but doesn't know how far to go.

The issue is that with a debt that, even now, is nearly 140 per cent of GDP, Jamaica is being forced to undergo tough fiscal adjustments, including returning a primary surplus of 7.5 per cent of GDP. The Government has successfully completed the first year of the four-year programme.

Social pain

But those results bring social pain, which is politically exploitable. The fiscal options are, however, limited and the stability is necessary as part of broader growth-inducing reforms. And it doesn't help the JLP and Mr Shaw that the previous IMF programme quickly collapsed under their watch, in part because of their unwillingness to make the toughest, most painful calls.

The strategies formulated by Hill's team will, therefore, have to balance the fiscal realities against meeting their mandate for a growth agenda that makes the JLP attractive to the electorate. They will also have to keep another fact in mind: a winning manifesto is one thing; its implementation, however, must not push us back into the abyss of debt and deficit.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.