The 2008 worldwide recession has impacted on the worlds economy. With external debt rising and the economy contracting, in 2009 Jamaica once again sought the support of the IMF, agreeing a standby loan package in February 2010. Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates. Economy. Despite the reforms, for successive governments it proved very difficult to break out of the cycle of deficits, currency devaluations, very high inflation and falling living standards. Jamaica is the largest island in the English-speaking Caribbean, and the most populated with 2.93 million people. Jamaica is a middle-income, oil-importing country that attempted diverse economic development strategies during the 1970s and 1980s. Jamaica had the second largest GDP of the Commonwealth Caribbean, behind only Trinidad and Tobago, an oil-exporter. The Jamaican economy is heavily dependent on services, which accounts for more than 70% of GDP. The USA, China (Hong Kong) and Taiwan have provided most investment in these zones. The major sectors of the economy were bauxite (see Glossary) and …
Top 3 Trade Partners (2017): United States, China, and Japan Top 3 Exported Goods (2017): Inorganic Chemicals , Oil & Mineral Fuels, and Beverages Top Industries Source: CIA World Factbook Tourism; Bauxite/Alumina; Agro … Investment and remittances from Jamaicans abroad make a significant contribution to GNI.The financial sector was troubled from late 1994, with many banks and insurance companies suffering heavy losses and liquidity problems. From 2001, once it had restored these banks and companies to financial health, Finsac divested them.Three years of recession were followed in the 2000s by modest but steady growth, dipping in 2004 when, in September, the island was devastated by Hurricane Ivan. Jamaica has not been exempted from this economic down turn. The current IMF Stand-By Agreement requires Jamaica to produce an annual primary surplus of 7%, in an attempt to reduce its debt burden below 60% by 2025. The country derives most of its foreign exchange from tourism, remittances, and bauxite/alumina. It grew strongly in the early years of independence, but then stagnated in the 1980s, burdened with persistent large fiscal and external deficits, due to heavy falls in the price of bauxite (bauxite and alumina make up the bulk of exports by value), fluctuations in the prices of agricultural commodities (sugar being the largest export after alumina and bauxite), and economic policies that left the country with high inflation, a fast devaluating currency, growing external debt and a large public sector containing many loss-making industries. Jamaica, however, has made steady progress in reducing its debt-to-GDP ratio from a high of almost 150% in 2012 to less … Economic Trivia: Jamaica is of the pioneering members of the CARICOM trade bloc. GDP Growth: -0.5% p.a. There was then a modest recovery, with growth of 1.7 per cent in 2011, and at least one per cent p.a.
Jamaica is a capitalist country. Hurricane Dean in August 2007 and heavy rains caused widespread damage to agriculture and disruption in mining activities.