Shaw’s says the economic climate created by the tough decisions taken by the JLP is the reason the country is on path that will eventually lead to growth, but IMF fails to give credit to the now opposition.
The IMF does not necessarily like any administration that opposes any position taken by the monetary agency and could be the reason they have not spoken favourably about what Shaw and the JLP administration was able to achieve in the 4 yrs they spent in office.
Here is the full Article 4 review.
The current favorable political environment provides an opportunity to address the significant macroeconomic imbalances and rising vulnerabilities, and Directors welcomed the authorities’ progress in developing a comprehensive economic program. Reducing the high level of public debt and boosting growth and competiveness, while improving social conditions, are key priorities. Noting the authorities’ interest in a new arrangement with the Fund, Directors stressed that strong commitment to decisive implementation of the program, underpinned by prudent growth assumptions, will be essential.
I believe that statement is what has Shaw peeved . ( I highlighted the portion I believe has Shaw hopping mad)
Shaw doubled the debt in 4 years which had taken previous administrations 30 years to accumulate. That action has directly led to the present budget and the determination to pay down the debt. Shaw made the “political choice” to use the 800 billion borrowed to patch the revenue shortfall despite raising taxes thrice, even though it was the right time due to JDX to “refinance” our mainly short and medium term foreign debt and lock in lower rates. This is why the iMF is so harsh and refused to deal with him going forward, he lost all credibility with them when his boss, the PM, refused to make the necessary cuts in public workers, etc. If he had used say $500 million to refinance the high interest debt, we would have the necessary room now to make the strategic moves we all know we need to make. All that being said, we were operating in a recession, but it’s now obvious to all that Shaw blew it. He undoubtedly is not the only one to blame but Bruce is missing and Shaw keeps on trying to defend the indefensible.
KJ, what was the debt before? what is now? Do your calculatioon and tell us if that is doubling. It is the dishonesty within us that hurt more than anything else. It prohibts us from going forward as we are either tearing down or fighting to defend ourselves.
To thine own self be true!
Kj made the common mistake of equating the increase in debt by half as much again as “doubling”. The debt went from about $950 billion to about $1.4-1.5 trillion. That is still an incredible rate of increase though given that when everyone’s “favourite” finance minister came on the scene the debt was $122 billion in 1993. The fact that the country missed a bunch of IMF tests only underlines how much of an opportunity was wasted by Shaw following the JDX (but then again, according to the US Embassy Cables, the JDX wasn’t even his idea so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that an opportunity was lost).
@Anonymous-Did you get the post by Jon? Before you accuse somebody of being dishonest, do some research…IT would have taken 10 seconds to find the information that Jon related since it has been bandied about in our local papers. I won’t make the same mistake and call you any names because facts are facts not fiction. Furthermore, relating facts mean I am neither tearing down, building up or defending anyone.
Audrey Shaw is “Blowing his own vuvuzela” and this will take him and the “clique” further down the road to destruction…………………
Audrey Shaw is “Blowing his own vuvuzela” and this will take him and the “clique” further down the road to destruction………………..
Shaw seems to an expert on wealth creation. Such a pity he was not able to do the same for Jamaica??
With a string of failed businesses (Hardware Store, Gas Station, Quarry Mining, etc.), you would hope he acquired some knowledge based on his past failures that would benefit the country. But what would you expect from an individual that have a Journalism education and passing himself off as a financial guru. He is the only Finance Minister I know who have a consistent history of passing a string of bad checks and bold enough to cover those bad checks with more bad checks.
No wonder Bruce had Don Wehby giving Shaw on the Job Training for the first couple of years at the MOF. Not to mention the sweetheart deal he got from FINSAC, where most of his debt was wiped out to the tune of cents on the dollar. How this guy became Minister of Finance is beyond me….only in Jamaica is this sh*t possible.
Seemed to have discovered the formula for success after four years as finance minister? lol. The problem we have is that of a media who are intellectually lazy and just as corrupt!!
Well they are definitely lazy. That is why really big stories domestically always seem to be reported by foreign newspapers first (confirmation that there was P-3 Orion, confirmation that mortars were used – up to now though I’ve yet to see anybody in the media put 2 + 2 together and at least speculate that the mortars were used to fire smoke shells to create a smoke screen…after all there was all that smoke over the area back in 2010 but the smoke was not from Coronation Market and was not from the neighbourhood being burnt to the ground).
I agree that they are Lazy AND corrupt. Take for instance the Dudus issue; they (two major Newspapers) chose not to say anything about the transcripts which exposed some serious strings of murders that took place in Tivoli Gardens at the hands of and/or direction of Dudus:
http://www.olintja.com/docs/coketranscript/transcript_of_Christopher_Michael_Coke.aspx
and
http://www.olintja.com/docs/Coke-sentencing-documents-witness-20120521.pdf
It took Floridian to “dig up” the information and post online. Maybe because it make the Jamaican Police look impotent or is it the section where it mention the meeting between Bruce Golding, Edward Seaga, Saleem Lazarus and Justin O’gilvie (Page 145/146)?
Jamaica’s media personnel should be ashamed of themselves…….To make someone from the US to have gotten an award over them on reporting on the Tivoli incursion…….If our journalists were not trying to make one party to look better than the other we would have known the truth from them instead of hearing the truth from a foreign journalist………..When will our journalists start to report the truth as they see it ????????????