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While admitting it was still early days for Jamaica to start celebrating, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said the country was on the right track with its fiscal-management policy.
"There is an optimum level of growth that the country should be aiming for and the first target must be the decreasing of debt and the sustainability of fiscal management," said Strauss-Kahn as he addressed journalists yesterday, the second day of the 31st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of CARICOM at the Rose Hall Resort and Spa in Montego Bay.
Strauss-Kahn said that talks yesterday with Minister of Finance Audley Shaw confirmed his satisfaction with the progress being made by the Jamaican Government.
He, however, cautioned that there was no way Jamaica's problems could be solved without the implementation and maintenance of austerity measures, which would inevitably cause belt-tightening among most citizens.
Victims of recession
Underscoring those difficulties, he said Jamaicans were innocent victims of the global economic crisis, which was not over.
"We are still in a dangerous world," he warned, adding that there were still problems in many parts of the world. "There is no place for complacency."
The IMF approved a US$1.27-billion standby lending facility for Jamaica in February and paved the way for other multilaterals to pour in additional capital of up to US$1.1 billion.
The austerity measures have forced the Government to restrict public-sector wage hikes and, through the Jamaica Debt Exchange, to realign J$700 billion in debt at lower interest and longer maturity.
Strauss-Kahn insisted that Jamaica could only achieve sustainable economic growth by sticking to the strictures outlined in the IMF programme. Such policies, he said, would lead the country into a strong recovery, including an uptick in job generation.
The IMF boss is using his visit to the CARICOM summit to review the prospects for Caribbean countries that are indebted. Both Dominica and Antigua & Barbuda have sought the assistance of the IMF. Antigua's agreement is only three weeks old.
Meanwhile, CARICOM chairman and prime minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, appealed to multilateral financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, to have another look at the treatment of Caribbean countries, whose economies are vulnerable on several fronts.
"We are exposed to three of the worst natural disasters - earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanoes," said Golding.
The CARICOM chairman said he hoped to woo multilateral institutions into creating a window similar to the one fashioned by the IMF for earthquake-devastated Haiti.
"There is an optimum level of growth that the country should be aiming for and the first target must be the decreasing of debt and the sustainability of fiscal management," said Strauss-Kahn as he addressed journalists yesterday, the second day of the 31st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of CARICOM at the Rose Hall Resort and Spa in Montego Bay.
Strauss-Kahn said that talks yesterday with Minister of Finance Audley Shaw confirmed his satisfaction with the progress being made by the Jamaican Government.
He, however, cautioned that there was no way Jamaica's problems could be solved without the implementation and maintenance of austerity measures, which would inevitably cause belt-tightening among most citizens.
Victims of recession
Underscoring those difficulties, he said Jamaicans were innocent victims of the global economic crisis, which was not over.
"We are still in a dangerous world," he warned, adding that there were still problems in many parts of the world. "There is no place for complacency."
The IMF approved a US$1.27-billion standby lending facility for Jamaica in February and paved the way for other multilaterals to pour in additional capital of up to US$1.1 billion.
The austerity measures have forced the Government to restrict public-sector wage hikes and, through the Jamaica Debt Exchange, to realign J$700 billion in debt at lower interest and longer maturity.
Strauss-Kahn insisted that Jamaica could only achieve sustainable economic growth by sticking to the strictures outlined in the IMF programme. Such policies, he said, would lead the country into a strong recovery, including an uptick in job generation.
The IMF boss is using his visit to the CARICOM summit to review the prospects for Caribbean countries that are indebted. Both Dominica and Antigua & Barbuda have sought the assistance of the IMF. Antigua's agreement is only three weeks old.
Meanwhile, CARICOM chairman and prime minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, appealed to multilateral financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, to have another look at the treatment of Caribbean countries, whose economies are vulnerable on several fronts.
"We are exposed to three of the worst natural disasters - earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanoes," said Golding.
The CARICOM chairman said he hoped to woo multilateral institutions into creating a window similar to the one fashioned by the IMF for earthquake-devastated Haiti.
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