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not seen that growth rate since then, not in any year and not annualized in
any quarter since the PNP formed the government in December 2011. I
say, “The PNP simply does not know how to grow the Jamaican economy.
They are lurching like a drunken sailor from one half-baked idea to the next
and in the process the PNP is ruining lives and ruining businesses.”
Ministers of this government trip over each other to make grand
announcements, only to learn later that all that glitters is neither gold, rare
earth-metals nor the elusive logistics hub. We see this in the actual GDP
out-turn versus the projected.
Real GDP growth
Projected at start
of Fiscal Year
Actual or expected
Out-turn
FY 2011/12
0.9%
FY 2012/13
-0.4%
-0.7%
FY 2013/14
0.8%
0.9%
FY 2014/15
1.4%
0.3%
FY 2015/16
1.6%
??
o
Businesses are closing.
J. Wray & Nephew is reportedly making 200 workers redundant so is
Scotiabank. And why is Nestle Jamaica moving its Milo Manufacturing
facility to Malaysia, 5,000 miles away, putting Jamaicans out of work?
Debt-to-GDP
o
I turn now to the all-important debt-to-GDP figures.
o
Mr Speaker, last budget year, I stood in this parliament and warned the
Minister against obfuscating the debt-to-GDP figures. I pointed out to the
country the different ratios being bandied about. Sometimes the ratio
includes PetroCaribe debt and guaranteed debt and sometime it does not,