Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke (standing) during his budget speech Tuesday in Gordon House. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)
I’ve not read any budget documents through this year, but know that the spending estimates are about $855 billion 4.7 per cent, versus projected inflation of 5.0 per cent, for the fiscal year, so a projected decline in real terms.
At some stage, I’ll take a butcher’s and see where that is going. But, from what I’ve heard and seen so far regarding the debate, Dr Nigel Clarke is looking to correct some of what I said before were mistakes.
I’ve not been reluctant to point to what I thought was clear incoherence in the government’s policy: Talking about wanting faster GDP growth but having in place fiscal policies that were clearly growth negative, especially hiking indirect taxes having relieved some of the direct taxes. Try as it might, the Bank of Jamaica and monetary policy were never going to do much to get things going faster. (I could get into some #Econ101 babble about monetary transmission and its flaws, but will resist the temptation.)
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