Amid public outcry that the Government should be doing more to bolster the country’s pandemic recovery, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke is standing firm on the Andrew Holness administration’s vow to maintain fiscal discipline despite the COVID-19 crisis.

Addressing attendees at the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica’s ‘Conversation On Charting Our Economic Recovery – Post-Budget Analysis’, Clarke said that while Jamaica has weathered the economic fallout brought on as a result of the pandemic thus far, this has been the case owing to the fact that “we have had the courage to make disciplined fiscal policies”.

In light of this fact, the minister said “that the path out of this is pretty clear, but that discipline needs to be maintained”.

He argued the country’s astronomical debt-to-GDP ratio has been so normalised over the years that many have failed to recognise the extent of the risk associated with it.

“We have been so accustomed to the level of indebtedness that we have that we don’t really realise how high it is and what the risks involved in it is,” said Clarke.

Seeking to clarify the Government’s decision to move forward with the country’s fiscal frugality, Clarke said that “one thing we need to be cognizant of is where we are as a country, and that’s why it is very important to be able to make policies from first principles and not just borrow from here, borrow from here, look at what this guy’s doing, look at what that guy’s doing but, understand our circumstances and devise policies to suit our circumstances”.

Having identified where we are as a country, which is number three on the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook 2020 list of the most indebted country’s in Latin America and the Caribbean, the minister noted that the “simple fact is (given) the riskiness in which we find ourselves…we cannot afford to be caught out when things begin to change in a timeframe that is very uncertain”.

As a result of this, Clarke said the decision the Government has made is one that has been considered very carefully and, given the riskiness and uncertainties faced by the country, this decision is in its best interest.

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