CAP sale may not be enough
Published:Friday | October 14, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Lavern Clarke, Business Editor
BARBADOS:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reiterated Thursday that it will not impose a deadline on Jamaica to deliver the blueprint on policies needed to kick-start the reviews and get the bailout programme back on track.
Luis Breuer, chief of the IMF Caribbean 2 Division and mission chief to Jamaica, said the programme expires next year April and that the fund would maintain discussions with Jamaica throughout.
"We don't have a deadline," Breuer said at a press conference in Barbados that followed the Caribbean launch of the IMF's Regional Economic Outlook for the Western Hemisphere.
Jamaica has made progress on one of the three issues holding up the reviews: a sale deal for Clarendon Alumina Production (CAP).
Breur told the Financial Gleaner on Wednesday that the IMF would have to study the terms of the deal before weighing in on whether it could potentially be a game changer in getting the standby reviews back on track.
"This is, of course, one of the important items under discussion, and if it has been sold, we would like to hear it from the Government before we make an official comment on it, so we can understand under what conditions and be able to assess the financial implications on the Budget," said Breuer.
The delayed sale of CAP, at last assessment in January, was projected to increase government spending by 0.4 per cent of GDP.
Breuer on Thursday highlighted Jamaica's return to growth after 13 consecutive quarters of contraction, as well as the improving inflation and other monetary targets.
"The Government's programme has already introduced many good things," he said.
It is now up to Jamaica to formulate the mix of policies required to deliver on its own targets, including the nine per cent wage bill by 2016, a deliverable that he said is part of the new fiscal responsibility law.