The Economist : Jamaica should do better than this !

ON THE eve of Lent Jamaica’s prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, placed holders of the government’s local-currency bonds on an austerity diet, asking them to accept a lower interest rate. Her finance minister followed up with unpopular emergency tax increases. In return, on February 15th the IMF announced a preliminary agreement to a $750m loan. The Lenten diet is set to continue: approval of the credit by the Fund’s board will require prior approval of more tax rises and a public-sector pay freeze.

 

Bruce Golding, Ms Simpson Miller’s predecessor, similarly agreed to reform taxes, the financial system and the public sector. After a resolute start, the programme went off track. Public-sector pay rose by more than the target.With the economy stagnant and fierce political disputes over gang crime, Mr Golding stepped down and his party then lost office in a December 2011 election.

 

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21572223-imf-again-lenten-diet

Trinidad’s Commissioner of Police opens investigation on the Minister of National Security

When I read this in the Trinidad Express earlier I was “shocked” asking how the Commissioner is going to launch an investigation against his boss, and then it hit me, Jay you are reading a Trinidadian and not a Jamaica report. I could never see a Jamaican commissioner of police launching an investigation into the activities of the Minister of National Security in Jamaica, if he wanted to continue in that job.  Any COP so brave would be considered to be  an “enemy of the state”.

We will see if anything does in fact comes out of the investigation of the activities of Jack Warner .

 

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/CoP_to_probe_boss-194417221.html

Belize Government presents a “tax” free budget

BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC) – The Belize government has presented a BZ$934.3 million tax free budget to Parliament on Friday (One Belize dollar =US$0.49 cents).

“The fiscal cliff is not for the United Democratic Party,” Barrow told parliament, adding that preliminary estimates compiled by the Statistical Institute of Belize showed that the local economy had grown by five per cent during 2012 well above the 1.9 per cent recorded for 2011 and just about the best in the Anglophone Caribbean.

 

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Belize-government-presents-tax-free-budget

 

One must note that just two weeks ago the Belize Government force bond holders to take a 10% hair cut on the principal owing, which according to the reports will result in significant losses to bond holders.

http://www.bnamericas.com/news/banking/belize-creditors-face-up-to-a-significant-haircut-on-debt-exchange