Wednesday, May 06, 2009Jamaica Facing Hard Times

Oscar RamjeetJamaica Facing Hard Times, Says PM In Budget Presentation

Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding spent most of his time speaking about the difficult times Jamaica has been facing during the past four decades in his budget presentation in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

He said that only five times since 1970 did the Jamaican economy grow by more than 3 percent. It recorded negative growth 14 times and less than 2 percent growth 14 times. He added, "We can't blame that on this global crisis. When the world economy was growing we were limping. When the economies of developing countries were expanding even faster than the rest of the world, ours was crawling behind the entire world. In the last four decades, the rest of CARICOM has grown cumulatively by 173 percent while the Jamaican economy has grown by less than 25 percent, leaving us with the fourth lowest per capita income in the region.”

He added that the global crisis "caught us with our pants down. We didn't drop our pants only since September 2007. Our pants have been at our ankles for decades. We were in a crisis long before this crisis."

Some countries have been able to reduce taxes, provide massive financial assistance and incentives to businesses, expand welfare programmes and launch massive public works to re-energise their economies. But he said Jamaica did not. He added, "Some countries have maintained low debt levels and accumulated huge fiscal surpluses. We did not."

The Prime Minister added that the budget debate is taking place in the context of the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression 80 years ago. It is frequently referred to as a "crisis" and that is exactly what it is. Economies that had come to regard robust economic growth as a natural way of life have suddenly found themselves slipping and sliding.

"Exchange rates in many countries with much stronger currencies than our own have depreciated even more than our own," he said.

In the United States more than 4 million people have lost their jobs. This is the equivalent of 42,000 in Jamaica. The economy of Ireland, once considered a model for rapid economic growth, is virtual freefall and the government has had to table its second budget since the start of this year, with further cuts in expenditure.

In his stirring presentation, Golding said, "This crisis has been like a blow to our belly and the pain is spreading throughout the body in ways that we feel, but don't always recognise."

“We are going through tough times and I know it is hard on the Jamaican people. It is hard on the workers when they cannot get their wage increases," he said.

On Wednesday, the Finance Minister will wrap up debate on the Budget.

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