'It's not that bad'

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has rejected the assertion that more than 100,000 Jamaicans have lost jobs since the recession.

In his contribution to the 2011-2012 Budget Debate in Gordon House yesterday, Golding said official figures available suggest that 58,000 persons had lost jobs.

The prime minister also dismissed as false claims by the parliamentary Opposition that more than 600,000 Jamaicans are living below the poverty line.

"It is not true that over 600,000 people are below the poverty line. The figures do not say that," Golding said, arguing that the data available to him indicate 445,000 Jamaicans are living below the poverty line.

Golding said the increase in the poverty level is directly attributable to the decline in the economy.

"The impact of these factors has been mitigated by the provision of increased benefits through PATH (Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education), the allocation for which has been increased from $1.7 billion in 2007 to $4 billion this year. Even after allowing for inflation, this represents a real increase of more than 60 per cent," Golding said.

The prime minister said increased welfare provisions could do only so much to ease poverty. He said getting the economy back on a path of growth is what will rescue the people from poverty.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller, in a media release after Golding's presentation, called for the appropriate state authorities to publish the official unemployment and poverty figures year-on-year for the last four years.

According to Simpson Miller, the request comes against the background of the figures offered by the prime minister, when information previously available showed losses as high as 103, 000.

Simpson Miller said the prime minister has not been truthful in the statistics he has provided, especially with respect to unemployment and poverty, and urged him to cross-check his data with the Planning Institute of Jamaica, and against statements he previously made on the matter.