Financial Experts Mislead Jamaica on Financial Crisis

Unless you have been under a rock for the last few weeks, you are aware that the financial crisis has globally the world. Recently, Financial analyst Ralston Hyman, speaking on the state of the Jamaican economy, chastise Jamid the government for being slow to inform the nation about the serious issue that has become global.

He was quoted as saying, ", "With no disrespect, but for the Finance Minister Audley Shaw to be telling us that nothing will happen to Jamaica is ridiculous," at a forum at the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) Headquarters. Hyman added that the US financial crisis was already affecting living conditions in Jamaica in terms of oil and food prices."

Growing up in Jamaica in the 70's and 80's, I remember the effect of the then "oil crisis" that had hit the United States. This affected the product import into the island. Currently with the recent "bailout" of the banks by the government. Their are two ways this can hurt Jamaica, through Tourism and remittance.

Jamaica has long depended on people sending money from the United States, Canada and the U.K. and other countries by Western Union and Money grams. It is said that this amounts to over 1.5 billion US dollars per year. The US tourism market also provides billions of dollars to the Jamaican economy. What Jamaica needs to do is produce more of the food we eat and cut down spending on luxurious foreign items and this will offset any reduction in foreign exchange.

Jamaicans have become over the years too dependent on Foreign Exchange (my own opinion). What happened to the days when man actually farmed and worked the land for profit and to feed his family. Nowadays the focus is on having two cell phones in your house while your children don't have anything to eat. Greed is what is killing Jamaica, not the gunman.


Source: Caribbean Net News

Does The United States "Bailout" Affect Jamaica

Many in Jamaica have been asking this question. How does the proposed "bailout" of the United States financial crisis affect Jamaica or any other country for that matter. Jamaica's Minister of Finance, Audley Shaw, was quoted as telling parliament that, "I should also indicate that, in terms of additional challenges that may arise in raising capital on the international capital markets, this is being supplemented by the Government's proactive agenda in re-engaging with multilateral institutions on an aggressive basis over the past year, and is now beginning to see the finalization of significant access to project and policy-based loans from the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank, at attractive interest rates,"







Shaw also stated that, from all indications, the potential need for US dollar liquidity by institutions over the next few months was only a small portion of the current net international reserves (NIR) of the Bank of Jamaica of US$2.2 billion.

I wonder how this will affect the dollar "trade" in Jamaica. As many know Jamaica's dollar is valued much lower then the American dollar, which of course makes it a "ripe" market for the black market. With the current economic crisis hitting America, I wonder how long it will be before Jamaica's dollar surpasses America?