PM: We must not let the PNP’s failed policies undo our progress in managing inflation
Toriann Ellis / Our Today
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Prime Minister Andrew Holness is boasting of his government’s inflation management while urging Jamaicans not to give the PNP a chance to destroy the gains made with its previously failed policies.
Holness, who was making his contribution to the 2025/26 Budget Debate on Thursday, said the average annual inflation under his administration has been 5.5 per cent, the lowest under any administration since 1972.
This is within the Bank of Jamaica’s target range of 4 to 6 per cent.
“This is within the inflation target of four to six per cent despite the effect of global inflation resulting from the post-COVID supply chain shocks and geopolitical conflicts. Without the post-COVID inflation spike, we could safely project that our average inflation rate would have trended around 4.3 per cent,” he said.
However, Holness outlined that the period of highest inflation in Jamaica’s history was under the PNP administration, from 1989 to 2007.
“During that period, inflation averaged 18.5 per cent per year, resulting in cumulative inflation of 2,229 per cent… In 1980, a loaf of bread cost less than a dollar, but in 2007, it cost $130. You know how much inflation that is,” he added.
Additionally, he underscored that cumulative inflation in the United States during the same period, 1989 to 2007, was 71.5 per cent or 2.9 per cent per year.
“In 1992, Jamaica’s inflation rate was nearly 80 per cent. So in one year, in a single year, Jamaica had more inflation than the United States had over the same 18 and a half years.”
Holness exclaimed that it is in this period of inflation under the PNP that the starting point of Jamaica’s economic woes can be identified. However, he stated that through well-managed fiscal and monetary policy, his administration has brought inflation back down to sustainable levels.
“My administration has instituted a robust policy of inflation targeting through a disciplined monetary policy of the Independent Central Bank supported by responsible fiscal policy of the central government,” he added.
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