THE executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday gave a positive review of the Jamaican economy.

The IMF, which yesterday released Article IV of its consultation with the Jamaican government, said: "The authorities have succeeded over the past year in stabilising the economy and restoring market confidence".

It said, too, that the foreign exchange market stabilised in mid-2003 and that "inflation has decelerated, domestic interest rates have declined and growth has improved while Jamaica has returned to their international capital market".

According to the Jamaica Information Service, the IMF noted that while the external economic environment was favourable, a key contributor to the positive outcome was the government's renewed fiscal adjustment effort in 2003/2004.

But, while giving a generally "thumbs up" report on the Jamaican economy, the IMF directors said that formidable challenges still remained because of the high level of public debt. They stressed that continued fiscal discipline was important to bringing down the public-debt to-GDP ratio.

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