KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica Labour Party Deputy Spokesperson on Finance Fayval Williams said that news of Jamaica’s international credit rating upgrade from Caa3 to Caa2 should cause Jamaicans to reflect on how low Jamaica’s credit ratings at Moody’s plunged under the current Government.  

“Of note, Jamaica’s international credit rating at Moody’s stood at B3 when the Jamaica Labour Party left Government in December 2011, a significantly better rating than Jamaica has currently. &At that time as well, Moody’s also had a stable outlook on the Jamaican economy”, Williams contended.

She added that the Jamaica Labour Party believes the prolonged mismanagement and miss-steps on the part of the PNP Government since taking office in December 2011 resulted in Jamaica’s international credit rating at Moody’s plunging to Caa3 in March 2013, where it remained until this recent change to Caa2.

“We are urging the government to stop dilly-dallying with Jamaica’s economic growth plans as only strong economic growth can meaningfully move the country’s credit ratings up and take Jamaicans as a whole from poverty to prosperity” Williams added.

She said: “The recently anemic 0.3% GDP growth for 2014 shows the scarcity of growth initiatives and policies.  This should be particularly embarrassing for a PNP Government that has held the reigns for approximately twenty-one and a half years of the last twenty-five and a half years”.