Prime Minister Andrew Holness says while the country is making small strides in economic growth, there remains stability in the domestic economy.

Holness, who was addressing both Jamaicans and members of the Diaspora on Tuesday (June 18) during the 10th Biennial Diaspora Conference opening ceremony, highlighted strides made to grow the country’s economy.

“Jamaica has now experienced 12 consecutive quarters of economic growth since the pandemic. It is worth recalling that prior to the pandemic, we enjoyed 20 consecutive quarters of economic growth and this was the longest unbroken period of economic expansion since our independence,” Holness said.

Agreeing that the one and two per cent economic growth recorded by the country is not the desired results Holness said important to acknowledge the economic strides the country has made.

“Let us all agree that the economic growth that we are experiencing one, two and three per cent is not the economic growth that we want. We want four, five, six, seven, eight per cent economic growth. But let us reflect on what our economic growth experience was. Sometimes it went up, most times it went down, not just that negative for several decades unstable. What have we seen [in] the last decade? We have seen stability in our economy,” the prime minister said.

“I say to our millennials, our young people and those who are sceptical about Jamaica and they say our economic growth is low. No one disputes that, but our economic growth is better than it has been in the history of Jamaica,” he added noting that the country’s can only be built on sustainable economic growth.

Meanwhile, Holness noted that since his administration took office, the country’s unemployment rate has been at its lowest. Some 4.2 per cent. Additionally, the prime minister said some 156,000 jobs have been created since 2016.

He further added that the country’s debt-to-GDP [gross domestic product] ratio is now at 72 per cent.

He said this was achieved under successive Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and People’s National Party (PNP) administrations.

“The Jamaica Labour Party which forms a part of the government does not lay claim to this singularly. The truth is that some of the work towards cutting debt was done in the Bruce Golding administration, then it was picked up and advanced under the Portia Simpson- Miller led administration and former Minister of Finance Peter Phillips played a great role in that and we must embrace and acknowledge that this is a Jamaica achievement,” Holness said.