Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw (left), is greeted by Managing Director, Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ), Donald Farquharson (right), as he arrives at the Garmex Free Zone and Industrial Estate, Marcus Garvey Drive, on Wednesday (October 18) for the FCJ’s business and wellness expo. At centre is Chairman, FCJ, Lyttleton Shirley.

KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, is optimistic that the economy will record positive growth for 2017/18, despite a contraction in the first financial quarter.

“We are still holding to an economic growth for the fiscal year of about 1.7 to two per cent, which will still be above the 1.3 per cent that we had last year,” he said.

Shaw was speaking to journalists following the opening ceremony of the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) business and wellness expo at the Garmex Free Zone and Industrial Estate, Marcus Garvey Drive today.

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) reported that the economy recorded negative growth of 0.1 per cent in the April to June quarter.

Shaw explained that the negative growth was due to a combination of drought at the start of the calendar year and flood rains at the beginning of the fiscal year.

“When we did a further analysis of the areas of growth and lack of growth, there were only two sectors that did not grow in the June quarter. Those were agriculture and mining. Both of them should show improvement in the third quarter, because we had favourable weather conditions,” he pointed out.

“You can’t judge anything by one quarter. You have to judge it by the overall picture of what is happening in the economy (and the overall picture) continues to be positive,” he added.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Finance_minister_optimistic_of_growth_for_fiscal_year