IMF Managing Director Christine Lagardeand Prime Minister Andrew Holness at a press conference on Friday morning (Photo: Naphtali Junior)
Part 1
In the final session of the IMF’s high-level Caribbean forum on Thursday “Unleashing growth and strengthening resilience”, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde took on the role of moderator to ask questions of Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Grenada’s Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, and the Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Kevin Peter Turnquest.
Her leading question was “What are the most important reasons for the Caribbean growth stagnation?”
Prime Minister Holness argued that poverty was our biggest problem, as it made it difficult to make consistent long-term disciplined policy choices. In his view, Jamaica had been “indisciplined in our policies”, increasing debt to finance short-term consumption, a “literal catastrophe”.
The solution, he said was better “communication” with the electorate, something that was difficult to achieve.
Grenadian Prime Minister Keith Mitchell told his own story of returning to power in 2013, winning 100 per cent of the seats after the previous government presided over four years of negative growth between 2008 to 2012.
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