Shaw calls for help for small economies

The Inter-American Development Bank-IDB and other multilateral development partners have been asked to extend more help to countries like Jamaica.



Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw, who is on an official visit to Medellin, Columbia, echoed the call.



Mr. Shaw wants the lending agencies to put in place economic stimulus packages, which will assist small, heavily indebted and highly vulnerable economies in the current global recession.



He says unlike developed countries that provided assistance for their economies, countries like Jamaica cannot afford such a move.



Additionally he says despite the liquidity support provided by the IDB, there is need for variation in the kind of support it receives.



Mr. Shaw says the variation of the liquidity support programme would allow the bank to play a defining and unprecedented role in moving the region out of the current economic quagmire.