Strong Economic Resurgence Continues

Jamaica’s strong post-COVID-19 economic resurgence continued with significant out-turns:

A customer conducting a transaction using the new Polymer Bank Notes. The series was officially released into circulation in June. The suite comprises the upgraded $50, $100, $500, $1,000, and $5,000 notes, and the newly introduced $2,000 bill.
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke (3rd right), and Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams (3rd left), peruse the Citizens’ Guide to the 2023/24 Budget, during the launch of the Finance Ministry’s Secondary Schools Tour at Wolmer’s High School for Girls in Kingston. Also perusing the document are (from left) Principal, Wolmer’s Boys’, Mr. Dwight Pennycooke; Head Boy, J’Vaughn Hyman; Head Girl, Wolmer’s Girls’, Dominique Brown, and Principal, Ms. Colleen Montague. Copies of the Guide were presented to students of the 10 schools visited during the tour from April 18-28.

• 4.2 per cent growth bet-ween January and March and 2.3 per cent for April to June.

• Estimated 2.9 per cent growth between January and June.

• 4.5 per cent record low unemployment rate.

• Decrease in the number of unemployed persons by 27,500 or 30.7 percentage points to 62,200 in July.

• Reduction in youth (14-24) unemployment by 9,000, or 26 per cent, to 25,600.

• Increase in the number of employed persons by 47,000 to 1,315,100.

• Increase in the labour force complement by 19,600 or 1.4 per cent to 1,377,300.

• 30.6 per cent increase in export earnings between January and July, totalling just over US$1.22 billion.

• Decline in inflation for October to 5.1 per cent, which placed the rate within the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) 4-6 per cent target range.

• Net International Reserves (NIR) totalling approximately US$4.61 billion.

Global Credit Rating

• Moody’s Investor Service revised its economic outlook for Jamaica from ‘Stable’ to ‘Positive’, while Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings maintained a ‘Stable’ rating.

Bilateral/Multilateral Funding Support

• Approximately US$1.7 billion approved for Jamaica under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).

Local Funding Support

• The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) allocated $100 million for first-year implementation of the Growth and Expansion of MSMEs through Innovation and Capacity-building Grant Pilot Programme.

Budget

• Jamaica’s first trillion-dollar Budget was tabled in February.