Many Jamaicans have crossed over into 2022 with high personal debt, with much of their burden exacerbated by the past 22 months of the pandemic.

Household debt, according to the Bank of Jamaica in its Financial Stability Report 2020, increased 3.4 per cent in 2020 alone, while the ratio of household debt to disposable income also increased to 71.5 per cent, from 61.3 per cent in 2019. It’s not clear yet whether the ratio worsened in 2021.

The deterioration of household debt-to-income ratio occurred as 57 per cent of Jamaican households experienced a decline in income, according to the Caribbean Policy Research Institute in its 2021 study called ‘Locked Down, Locked Out: Vulnerable Communities in the Pandemic’.

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20220125/growth-jobs-consolidate-high-interest-loans-reduce-debt-2022