KINGSTON, Jamaica – The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board will decide on Jamaica’s application for an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement of US$958 million today.

The IMF mission reached a stall-level agreement with the island in February and is to be supported by a 48-month arrangement under the EFF.

A deal with the Fund had been expected by the end of March, a deadline which the Government admitted late that month, was unlikely to be met.

Finance Minister, Peter Phillips, had then said that “it was expected that the programme would have been submitted to the executive board of the IMF “subject to our completion of prior actions and the receipt of financing assurances by the Fund management by the end of March”.

“It is apparent to us that the end of March date will not be met, but I can report that the prior action obligations of the Government of Jamaica have been completed,” Phillips said.

Among the prior actions completed by the Government was an agreed wage freeze by at least 70 per cent of the public sector and the successful completion of the national debt exchange.