Jamaica: Leveraged Sellout
AT HIS SWEARING-IN CEREMONY IN NOVEMber, U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica William Holden made his intentions clear. His stated mission was, for once and for all, "to silence the trumpets of...
...dollar.'°] "The World Bank and the IMF don't have to worry about the farmers and local companies going out of business, or starvation wages, or the social upheaval that will result," he added...
...These and other measures were intended to improve the country's balance sheet, reduce its ability to purchase imports, and ensure continued payments on the foreign debt...
...The Bank is fully aware that Jamaica will have to use the money for other foreign exchange needs and not to add anything to its agriculture budget," said an official close to the negotiations...
...The prime minister begged the congressmen to persuade multilateral lenders to bend their rules against debt rescheduling, not just forJamaica but for.other debtor nations...
...market for drugs...
...assistance...
...Drug Enforcement Administration...
...He reminded them that the U.S.-sponsored "Brady plan," even if it were to offer substantial relief on the debts poor countries owe to commercial banks, it would be of little help to Jamaica, whose external commercial debt is only 10% of its total foreign debt bill.7 Manley reassured the U.S...
...In the first week of November, the government devalued the Jamaica dollar and reduced food price subsidies designed to protect the poor...
...They tell us we should let the market determine the exchange rate, even if it means the Jamaica dollar falls to 15 to I. If that happens, they say, wages will drop further and we'll be flooded with free-zone-type manufacturing...
...he exclaimed...
...representatives that, drastic as the crisis might be, he had no intention of approaching it "in a confrontationist way...
...The trumpets had long been laid aside...
...without an IMF agreement, World Bank loan funds would not be released and other sources of credit would be hard to obtain...
...The government was forced to swallow other onerous, even absurd conditions in order to obtain new foreign loans from other sources...
...In 1985, AID spent $48 for Jamaica projects for every person in that country...
...The level of popular consciousness in Jamaica upon which the potential for organized resistance and for an alternative development approach depends remains relatively high...
...9. It included $25 million from the Bank, $25 million from the Japanese government, $7 and $5 million from West Germany and the Netherlands respectively, and could increase to $87 million if the Inter-American Development Bank agrees to kick in another $25 million...
...New price ceilings raised the legal maximum for bread, cooking oil, milk, flour, cornJAMAICA: LEVERAGED SELLOUT Soldiers patrol Kingston during last year's election campaign: Michael Manley inherited a $2 billion foreign debt VOLUME XXIII...
...government, and Edward Seaga, who is eager to win power again...
...brought in more funds, but has yet to result in better service from the supposedly "more efficient" private sector...
...Other Seaga policies, worked out in cooperation with the IMF and World Bank, hurt Jamaicans badly among all but the highest social strata...
...This dismal assessment was made six months before hurricane Gilbert dealt Jamaica its devastating blow...
...pressures, Seaga reduced government protection of Jamaican producers and opened the country to more imports from abroad...
...To reduce demand for legal foreign exchange, channel dollars to favored interests and supporters, and resist pressure for devaluation of the Jamaica dollar, Seaga allegedly condoned some say he organized the illegal but systematic import and re-sale of dollars from the profits of the ganja trade, estimated to be the country's second highest source of foreign exchange earnings...
...Even Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Edward Seaga had resisted foreign creditors' demands for subsidy cuts and price increases, holding real food prices at or below their 1985 level...
...8. Jamaican non-government participants in the Congressional symposium where Manley spoke questioned the wisdom of his antiganja war...
...And what of the cost to our own youth and society...
...In November, the government concluded a $62 million agreement with the World Bank for "Agricultural Sector Adjustment...
...Interviewed in June 1988, Roger Robinson, then Bank senior economist for Jamaica, said "Five years ago, people were still thinking about 'meeting local needs,' but not any more...
...The entire system seems to be on the verge of collapse...
...However, because that surplus was not sufficient to cover the total capital budget as well, the IMF insisted that further cuts be made in expenditures of both the central government and prospering parastatals, making inevitable even more reductions in basic social programs, already cut to the marrow...
...The conservative newspaper The Daily Gleaner calculated that a worker earning the standard minimum weekly wage of $18, after buying a minimal food basket for a family of four barely enough to last a few days would be left with only $5 to cover school costs, transportation, rent, utility bills, and all other expenses.2 The devaluation and price hikes created immediate outcries of anger and despair, not just from the rightleaning press but from the public...
...Unless the rules of the game are changed, or until Jamaica, along with other governments, refuses to play, the suffering and sacrifices of its people will be in vain...
...But the popular organizations that were encouraged, up to a point, by the PNP in the 1970s were badly damaged by the economic pressures and political assaults of the I 980s...
...3. A poll by Carl Stone taken on Dec...
...Among the required conditionalities are the nearelimination of tariffs and quantitative restrictions on livestock imports, a move certain, said the official, to destroy local industries...
...5 (FEBRUARY 1990) 21The Caribbean meal, rice, and other staples by amounts averaging 13...
...The Bank believes the government should have no say at all in what is bought and sold to whom and for how much," said a Jamaican economist, "but the alternative of total privatization means one or a few big producers will monopolize every sector and manipulate it for their own benefit...
...with] severe deficits in infrastructure and housing...
...pressures, Seaga reduced government protection of Ja- maican producers and opened the country to more imports from abroad...
...Above all, the reconquest of Jamaica's freedom would and will require a mobilization of the Jamaican people, not by the blaring of any trumpet in their ears, but by the careful heeding of their own voices, offering them support in the battles against exploitation in which they are already engaged...
...J AMAICANS, LIKE OTHER CARIBBEAN PEOples, have struggled against overwhelming odds for generations...
...Michael Manley, Robinson added with an obvious sense of satisfaction, "is making all the right noises" to reassure the bank and potential foreign investors, and to spurn what Robinson called the "irrational" self-reliance strategies and programs to support farming that it had pursued in the 1970s...
...7. Of the rest of Jamaica's foreign debt, 36% is owed to foreign governments and 41% to multilateral agencies...
...Similar criteria are likely to be applied when the Bank and Jamaica negotiate a "trade and finance sector adjustment" loan in the spring...
...In the 1970s, such a declaration by the chief emissary of the United States or any foreign country would have been met with strong protest, if not an expulsion order, by the People's National Party government, led by the once-charismatic social democrat, Michael Manley...
...producers were already in the country proffering U.S...
...1986, and U.S.AID, Congressional Presentation for Fiscal Year 1989...
...His stated mission was, for once and for all, "to silence the trumpets of socialism" in Jamaica and the Caribbean...
...Manley and the PNP returned to power over a state whose independence had been severely curtailed and over a society choking in the stranglehold of debt...
...P RIME MINISTER MICHAEL MANLEY TOLD A U.S...
...He failed to pay bills to cover maintenance of hospitals, the university, and other public institutions, and looked the other way while the government importing agency, Jamaica Commodity Trading Corporation, accrued huge deficits...
...Critics say Seaga manipulated the growth figures to create the illusion of structural adjustment success andjustify further foreign and domestic borrowing...
...Most important was Seaga's massive accumulation of debt...
...Calculated from U.S.AID, Overseas Loans and Grants, Sept...
...Other public land, rights, and property are on the auction block...
...Instead, the funds will go directly into Bank of Jamaica certificates of deposit, to shore up the government's credit reserves and satisfy the IMF...
...But the government of the "new Michael Manley" had little reason to object...
...He might have added that the creditors also know they can count on the U.S...
...The government's importing agency announced that it would stop buying salted codfish, an important protein source and essential ingredient in Jamaica's most famous national dish, sal'fish and ackee...
...T HE FUND'S RULES ARE SO STRINGENTLY dogmatic that they require even profitable public enterprises to be sold and efficient services cut back...
...He promoted the rapid expansion of the country's Free Trade Zones-foreign-run, Jamaicansubsidized, state-of-the-art sweatshops where women with no union representation earn as little as $15 a week, producing garments and toys mainly for foreign markets...
...In determining the credit-worthiness of a government, the IMF lumps together the net surplus or deficit of all public and "parastatal" (state-owned company) budgets...
...The release of these and other urgently needed loans is explicitly conditional on the conclusion of an agreement between the Jamaican government and the IMF...
...We told the World Bank team that farmers can hardly afford credit now, and that higher rates would put them out of business,"explained a government official concerned with agriculture...
...In negotiations for a housing project loan, the Bank is insisting on further increases in mortgage interest rates, even though the rates are already so far out of the range of most Jamaicans that the National Housing Trust paid for mainly by a tax on all Jamaican wage-earners, and responsible for 80% of the country's housing financing is banking its money instead of building homes...
...5. From 1982 to 1986 spending on health dropped from 8.3% to 5.9% of the total govemment budget...
...That agreement called for, among other things, a 10% limit on wage increases (despite anticipated 15% inflation), interest rate hikes, credit constriction, and further government spending cuts...
...The plane was held for a week and an $11 million fine was charged...
...The Bank's logic is that the less that goes into government, the more there will be for the private sector, and that the private sector, not government, should determine how resources are used," the official said...
...The Jamaica dollar has been devalued drastically since 1976, when it was worth $1.78...
...speculator and tax fugitive Mark Rich...
...Seaga downplayed the loss of jobs resulting from the closure of Jamaican-owned factories due to competition with foreign manufacturers for markets and foreign exchange...
...In the 1970s, such a declaration by the chief emissary of the United States or any foreign country would have been met with strong protest, if not an expulsion order, by the People's National Party government, led by the once-charismatic social democrat, Michael Manley...
...Why are we spending all this money on drugs when our own country is falling apart, and when the source of what you call our 'problem' is the U.S...
...In an attempt to make Seaga's Jamaica a free enterprise showcase in the Caribbean, AID spent more on its Jamaica program-an average of $135 million yearly from 1981 through 1986-than on any other Caribbean country...
...There is scant evidence that the private sector is either efficient or inclined to invest substantially in productive activity in Jamaica...
...The Manley government has been set up for failure, quite consciously and cleverly, by the international lenders, the U.S...
...2 The devaluation and price hikes created immediate outcries of anger and despair, not just from the rightleaning press but from the public...
...4. found that 66% of those questioned were "not satisfied" with the PNP and that 52% felt that the Prime Minister was "not doing a good job...
...The 1988 grounding in Miami last year of a ganja-laden jet from Jamaica, these observers allege, was part of the plan set up by the U.S...
...In most neighborhoods here, a rock of crack now costs less than a good spliff [marijuana cigar}, and is a lot more destructive...
...commented one participant...
...4 Another Seaga tactic encouraged by the Bank, the Fund, and AID, was the slashing of essential social services, resulting in increases in unemployment, infant mortality and hunger.' In line with structural adjustment policies and U.S...
...beef to hotel managers before the ink on the agreement was dry...
...During October, Bank of Jamaica officials scrambled to plan further economic sacrifices to placate the Fund...
...More important in the Bank's view is the fact that the Trust's operations "would become more profitable," a party to the negotiations reported...
...The most infamous example thus far has been the sale of $80 million worth of bauxite and alumina in advance to the Alcan corporation and to U.S...
...Other Seaga policies, worked out in cooperation with the IMF and World Bank, hurt Jamaicans badly among all but the highest social strata...
...In the first week of November, the government devalued the Jamaica dollar and reduced food price subsidies designed to protect the poor...
...Public confidence in the PNP as well as Manley's personal popularity plunged...
...Independent progressive organizations work valiantly to keep up with the demands of farmers, workers, unemployed youth, and the urban poor for organizing assistance and logistical support...
...Higher interest rates, the World Bank reportedly acknowledged, might mean even less housing will be built...
...For three months after Manley's re-election on February 9 of last year, he was locked in intense negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a stand-by loan to replace one for $106 million that his predecessor, Edward Seaga, had agreed to the previous September...
...But its dangers could hardly be greater than the immense human suffering, social disintegration, environmental destruction, and political instability that Jamaica faces if the PNP carries forth its new more accurately, revived strategy of avoiding confrontation with the United States and pledging allegiance to Jamaican and foreign capital...
...By AID's own accounting, Jamaica by March of 1988 was a country with "a crippling debt burden," where economic output was "far below the production level of 1972," where "distribution of wealth and income is highly unequal...
...To reduce demand for legal foreign exchange, channel dollars to favored interests and supporters, and resist pressure for devaluation of the Jamaica dollar, Seaga allegedly condoned-some say he organized-the illegal but systematic import and re-sale of dollars from the profits of the ganja trade, estimated to be the country's second highest source of foreign exchange earnings...
...More than half of the country's current $3.95 billion external debt--one of the highest per capita foreign debts in the world-was accrued by Seaga's government...
...More than half of the country's current $3.95 billion external debt one of the highest per capita foreign debts in the world was accrued by Seaga's government...
...It is most evident in populartheater and music, which at its best combines righteous anger against poverty, pollution, sexual and other forms of violence, and foreign control, with calls for African liberation and Caribbean unity, racial harmony, and peace...
...3 Easy to forget were the means by which Seaga, whose party governed the country for most of the 1980s, had achieved this apparent miracle...
...Workers in the country's cane fields, factories, and export-processing sweatshops continue to organize, demonstrate and protest, but with little support from the party they returned to power...
...Jamaica got quick cash from the deal, but the futures buyers will reap the profits of expected increases in alumina prices, perhaps as far into the future as 1995...
...about twothirds of its members have resigned, although many remain politically active...
...Once you have that ingrained in a population, you can't go back easily, even if the PNP and Michael Manley come in again...
...The government has quietly dropped the nonsensical rhetoric of the recent past and is divesting state enterprises even faster than its predecessor....The old gospel that government should be operated in the interests of the poor is being modified, even if not expressly rejected, by the dawning realization that the only way to help the poor is to operate the government in the interest of the productive...
...an estimated 10,000 such jobs were lost under Seaga...
...In Jamaica's case, after major spending cuts, the central government was running no deficit at the time of the IMF negotiations in September...
...Jamaica did experience some real GDP growth during Seaga's term, mainly as a result of laundered "ganja" dollars from the marijuana trade, increased tourism earnings, lower fuel import costs, and higher prices for bauxite and alumina...
...The most bizarre aspect of the "agriculture" loan agreement is that not one penny will go to aid Jamaica's farmers...
...That agreement called for, among other things, a 10% limit on wage increases (despite anticipated 15% inflation), interest rate hikes, credit constriction, and further government spending cuts...
...shortages of key medical and technical person- nel plague the health system...
...The apparent conversion of Manley to a pro-capitalist privatizer led The Enterprise, voice of the Private Sector of Jamaica association, to gloat: "Schools can't find teachers...
...With 41% of the debt owed to the IMF, World Bank, and other international agencies, Manley said, "Jamaica will pay $80 million to the IMF alone this year, while they will not pay us one dollar...
...The congressional audience praised his anti-drug stance, but with the exception of the delegation's leader, Rep...
...Important victories have been won...
...Jamaica's foreign debt has come down from its high point of $4.4 billion in 1988 after it paid the IMF $213 million and the World Bank $75 million in fiscal year 1989...
...The sale of the country's 20% block of shares in the national telephone company to British Cable and Wireless Ltd...
...this has already happened to our coffee [most of which now goes to Japan...
...Now the lawyers and others with access to resources are interested in external export investment...
...Critics say Seaga manipulated the growth figures to create the illusion of structural adjustment success andjustify further foreign and domestic borrowing...
...It will necessitate an appeal to the poor majority for continued struggle and sacrifice, and a clear vision of an alternative to the failed developmentthroughindebtedness strategy imposed by the multilateral lenders and the United States...
...This was 27 times more per capita than AID provided to Sub-Saharan Africa that same year, the peak year of AID funding for Africa...
...In November 1989, a pound of chicken in Jamaican markets cost the equivalent of $1.06, a loaf of bread cost 80 cents, and a dozen eggs sold for $2.32...
...2. Food prices in Jamaica are not much lower than those in the United States, where the minimum wage is 11.5 times as high...
...This dismal assessment was made six months before hurricane Gilbert dealt Jamaica its devastating blow.6 By early 1988, World Bank officials apparently felt they had achieved their goals for Jamaica, and that it was safe, if not preferable, to acquiesce to Manley's return to office...
...Several Jamaican observers contended in private that U.S...
...assistance...
...But by the end of 1989, the desperate PNP efforts to meet lenders' terms left many with the impression that Seaga, despite his highly unpopular austerity policies, at least "knew better how to manage...
...The PNP even gave support to Jamaican potato farmers, when it's well known that potatoes coming in from Miami make better French Fries...
...But down the road, when more farmers go out of business, they'll tell the world that it's because the country didn't use its loan money wisely...
...But by the end of 1989, the desperate PNP efforts to meet lenders' terms left many with the impression that Seaga, despite his highly unpopular aus- terity policies, at least "knew better how to manage...
...These and other measures were intended to improve the country's balance sheet, reduce its ability to purchase imports, and ensure continued payments on the foreign debt...
...By another sleight-of-hand, Seaga allowed the government itself to become Jamaica's biggest bad debtor...
...and where] physical decay and social violence deter investment...
...One was massive U.S...
...Another condition of the World Bank loan is the further reduction of government participation in commodity marketing boards...
...That means we're running a 50-cent dollar country," he said...
...Moreover, he said, "The conditionalities of the loan are terrible, but there's no way Jamaica can afford to turn down $90 million...
...Congressional delegation in November, that his country would have to pay half of its export earnings and 40% of all government revenues just to cover its debt service in the coming year...
...they survive today with remarkable resilience and creativity...
...poorer countries of the Third World...
...4. This was also far more than the United States spent on other...
...By AID's own accounting, Jamaica by March of 1988 was a country with "a crippling debt burden," where economic output was "far below the production level of 1972," where "distribution of wealth and income is highly unequal...
...Because of the delay in obtaining IMF approval, the Dutch government informed Jamaica in December that it could no longer count on its contribution...
...Most important was Seaga's massive accumulation of debt...
...Manley then switched abruptly to describe in detail his "Seven-Point Plan" for a war against drugs...
...We had enough of that in the l970s," he said, dismissing the massive popular mobilizations and protests against IMF pressure during 1974-1980 as an impolite "hiccup" that would not be repeated...
...The Bank told us 'The market is telling you that agriculture is not the way to go for Jamaica...
...The negotiations resulted in May in a new IMF standby loan agreement for $65 million, though Jamaica was only able to withdraw one-fourth of that before it nearly failed an IMF "test" in September.' Although the government pleaded for a continuation of the original agreement on easier terms, the Fund was not in a lenient mood...
...To regain sovereignty overiamaica's economic and political affairs, the government would have to risk confrontation with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and, very possibly, the military might of the United States...
...Public confidence in the PNP as well as Manley's personal popularity plunged.3 Easy to forget were the means by which Seaga, whose party governed the country for most of the 1 980s, had achieved this apparent miracle...
...Congressional delegation in November, that his country would have to pay half of its export earnings and 40% of all government revenues just to cover its debt service in the coming year...
...In addition, the Bank wants the Jamaica Agricultural Credit Bank to charge interest rates close to or at market levels, even though the World Bank is not the source of the Credit Bank's funds...
...pressure on Manley to mount a massive anti-marijuana crackdown is an intentional scheme to deprive the PNP's Jamaica of the ganja dollars that cushioned the cash crisis for Seaga, and to replace marijuana use in Jamaica with cocaine...
...George Crockett, said almost nothing in response to Manley's pleas for debt relief.8 Faced with the debt crisis, credit cuts and intensified U.S., IMF, and World Bank pressure, the strategy of the PNP has been to try to "ride out the storm" by postponing more drastic currency devaluations for as long as possible, while grasping every possible source of foreign exchange...
...A fifth of the public work force was laid off in just one year, from October 1984 to October 1985...
...They simply assume that it is our job to keep our national security forces strong enough to suppress any uprising...
...By another sleight-of-hand, Seaga allowed the government itself to become Jamaica's biggest bad debtor...
...But the government of the "new Michael Manley" had little reason to object...
...With 41% of the debt 22 REPORT ON THE AMERICAS The Caribbean meal, rice, and other staples by amounts averaging 13...
...Jamaica did experience some real GDP growth during Seaga's term, mainly as a result of laundered "ganja" dollars from the marijuana trade, increased tourism earnings, lower fuel import costs, and higher prices for bauxite and alumina...
...Once you have that ingrained in a population, you can't go back easily, even if the PNP and Michael Manley come in again...
...6 By early 1988, World Bank officials apparently felt they had achieved their goals for Jamaica, and that it was safe, if not preferable, to acquiesce to Manley's return to office...
...Jamaican currency today is valued at 8.64% of its nominal 1976 worth in comparison to the U.S...
...The communist Workers Party of Jamaica, like other parties of the Left in much of the Caribbean, has lost ground...
...New price ceilings raised the legal maximum for bread, cooking oil, milk, flour, cornVOLUME XXIII, NO...
...The trumpets had long been laid aside...
...dollar...
...The result, in the words of a government spokesperson, would be "severe social dislocation...
...shortages of key medical and technical personnel plague the health system,...[with] severe deficits in infrastructure and housing,...[and where] physical decay and social violence deter investment...
...But underneath the bad news there is some movement like a tide beneath the waves that should give us some hope...
...he exclaimed...
...Seaga downplayed the loss of jobs resulting from the closure of Jamaican-owned factories due to competition with foreign manufacturers for markets and foreign exchange...
...The result, in the words of a government spokesperson, would be "severe social dislocation...
...The government's importing agency announced that it would stop buying salted codfish, an important protein source and essential ingredient in Jamaica's most famous national dish, sal'fish and ackee...
...Now there's an understanding among individuals who save, invest, and develop their careers that capital will start leaving again if the PNP, or even the JLP, intervenes too much...
...He promoted the rapid expansion of the country's Free Trade Zones foreign-run, Jamaicansubsidized, state-of-the-art sweatshops where women with no union representation earn as little as $15 a week, producing garments and toys mainly for foreign markets...
...That means we're running a 50-cent dollar country," he said...
...P RIME MINISTER MICHAEL MANLEY TOLD A U.S...
...This includes not only the nation's operating budget, but also its capital budget, which under structural adjustment is virtually dictated by the World Bank in order to ensure that expenditures support the priorities of the private sector...
...NO.5 (FEBRUARY 1990) 2! JAMAICA: LEVERAGED SELLOUT Soldiers patrol Kingston during last year's election campaign: Michael Manley inherited a $2 billion foreign debt A T HIS SWEARING-IN CEREMONY IN NOVEMber, U.S...
...For three months after Manley's re-election on February 9 of last year, he was locked in intense negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a stand-by loan to replace one for $106 million that his predecessor, Edward Seaga, had agreed to the previous September...
...The PNP even gave support to Jamaican potato farmers, when it's well known that potatoes coming in from Miami make better French Fries...
...The negotiations resulted in May in a new IMF standby loan agreement for $65 million, though Jamaica was only able to withdraw one-fourth of that before it nearly failed an IMF "test" in September.' Although the government pleaded for a continuation of the original agreement on easier terms, the Fund was not in a lenient mood...
...But more visible, at least in the mass media, is the frustration, despair, and social dislocation that spew forth in the form of ghetto gunfights, politically manipulated violence, soaring cocaine use, drug wars, and a sense of near-panic among the middle classes...
...But the Rastafari, feminist, and other artists who convey these messages face tough competition for the hearts and minds of Jamaicans from satellite TV's Dallas and Dynasty, evangelical fanaticism, and the CNN news...
...Now the lawyers and others with access to resources are interested in external export investment...
...His stated mission was, for once and for all, "to silence the trumpets of socialism" in Jamaica and the Caribbean...
...Some state-owned companies, such as Air Jamaica, were in the red, but the country's total recurrent budget showed a surplus...
...Nurses are fleeing....Everyone knows about the pressure on the dollar and the foreign exchange shortage...
...government to lend a hand...
...The Bank is also calling for the disbanding of the Jamaica Commodity Trading Corporation, a step not even Seaga was willing to take because of its importance in stabilizing food prices and capturing some revenue from the sale of foreien-donated sumllius food...
...The conservative newspaper The Daily Gleaner calculated that a worker earning the standard minimum weekly wage of $18, after buying a minimal food basket for a family of four-barely enough to last a few days-would be left with only $5 to cover school costs, transportation, rent, utility bills, and all other expenses...
...In an attempt to make Seaga's Jamaica a free enterprise showcase in the Caribbean, AID spent more on its Jamaica program an average of $135 million yearly from 1981 through 1986 than on any other Caribbean country.4 Another Seaga tactic encouraged by the Bank, the Fund, and AID, was the slashing of essential social services, resulting in increases in unemployment, infant mortality and hunger.5 In line with structural adjustment policies and U.S...
...an estimated 10,000 such jobs were lost under Seaga...
...But as long as the government seeks accommodation with the IMF, it has little choice but to shift resources toward business and away from social needs...
...Interviewed in June 1988, Roger Robinson, then Bank senior economist for Jamaica, said "Five years ago, people were still thinking about 'meeting local needs,' but not any more...
...He failed to pay bills to cover maintenance of hospitals, the university, and other public institutions, and looked the other way while the government importing agency, Jamaica Commodity Trading Corporation, accrued huge deficits...
...without an IMF agreement, World Bank loan funds would not be released and other sources of credit would be hard to obtain...
...6. U.S.AID, Country Development Strategy Statementfor Fiscal Year 1989: Jamaica...
...One was massive U.S...
...The path to Caribbean liberation is perilous indeed...
...We'll reach the limit of our ability to import, so that way, our foreign exchange 'problem' will be 'solved!' (Only 13 years ago, the Jamaica dollar was worth more than the U.S...
...Now there's an understanding among individuals who save, invest, and develop their careers that capital will start leaving again if the PNP, or even the JLP, intervenes too much...
...Jamaica: Leveraged Sellout 1. The amount of liquid foreign exchange assets held in reserve against Jamaica's outstanding debt had fallen short of IMP requirements by about $100 million on the day of the test...
...Even Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Edward Seaga had resisted foreign creditors' demands for subsidy cuts and price increases, holding real food prices at or below their 1985 level...
...Michael Manley, Robinson added with an obvious sense of satisfaction, "is making all the right noises" to reassure the bank and potential foreign investors, and to spurn what Robinson called the "irrational" self-reliance strategies and programs to support farming that it had pursued in the 1970s...
...During October, Bank of Jamaica officials scrambled to plan further economic sacrifices to placate the Fund...
Vol. 23 • February 1990 • No. 5
