Washington, DC – Ahead of President Obama’s trip to Jamaica this week, a new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) finds that Jamaica is running the most austere budget in the world, with a primary surplus of 7.5 percent, due to its IMF agreement, and that the government’s interest payments on the debt and austerity have brought public investment to a low. The paper, “Partners in Austerity: Jamaica, the United States andthe International Monetary Fund” by Jake Johnston, notes that Jamaica has a debt-to-GDP ratio of nearly 140 percent and its public interest burden is one of the very highest intheworld, at over 8 percent of GDP last year. Coupled with the IMF-backed austerity, high interest payments have all but displaced needed capital spending, reducing government capital expenditure to a low of 1.6 percent of GDP in FY 2014/15.
The paper notes that after three consecutive quarters of economic growth, GDP fell by 1.4 percent inthe third quarter of 2014, and the Jamaican economy is smaller today than it was in 2008. With anemic growth and continued austerity, social indicators have drastically worsened, with the poverty rate doubling since 2007. Unemployment, at 14.2 percent, remains higher today than during the height of the global recession.
“When President Obama travels toJamaica this week, he will be going as someone partly responsible for the high unemployment and poverty that the country is suffering through,” Jake Johnston said. “This paper shows that through its leadership role intheIMF, the U.S. is imposing unnecessary pain on Jamaica through harsh austerity and a debt trap.”
Jamaica has suffered declining average living standards over the past 20 years, with GDP per capital actually fallingby 0.3 percent annually over the past two decades.
Jamaica’s 7.5 percent primary budget surplus dwarfs even thebudget surpluses being demanded of crisis-hit countries such as Greece, which was expected to run a primary surplus of 3.0 percent of GDP this year and 4.5 percent for years thereafter – and even this is widely considered politically unsustainable.
The paper finds that Jamaica’s high debt-to-GDP ratio comes even after two debt restructurings, both as preconditions to receiving IMF support. After multilateral loans were cut off in 2012 following the breakdown ofJamaica’s previous IMF agreement, net flows fromthe multilateral banks turned negative for two consecutive years. Even after the signing of the new IMF agreement, Jamaica paid $138 million more to the IMF than it received last year, and Jamaica still owes the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank over $650 million through 2018.
This paper concludes that multilateral debt relief for Jamaica would likely free up more resources than new loans. Finally, the paper finds that without hundreds of millions in financial support from Venezuela and investment from China, the impact of IMF-led austerity would likely be far worse, making the ongoing program politically untenable.
“Alternatives toIMF-imposed austerity are key if Jamaica is going to emerge from its debt trap and begin economic recovery,” Johnston said. “Perhaps most important would be debt cancellation.”
Join us in defending the truth before it’s too late
The future of independent journalism is uncertain, and the consequences of losing it are too grave to ignore. To ensure Truthout remains safe, strong, and free, we need to raise $29,000 in the next 36 hours. Every dollar raised goes directly toward the costs of producing news you can trust.
Please give what you can — because by supporting us with a tax-deductible donation, you’re not just preserving a source of news, you’re helping to safeguard what’s left of our democracy.