KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Co-Chairman, Richard Byles, says Jamaica has surpassed the quantitative targets for the July to September quarter under the four-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

As such, he said the country is expected to pass the 10th quarterly review with the IMF team, currently underway.

Byles was speaking at EPOC’s quarterly media briefing at Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited’s head office in New Kingston, today.

He informed that the targets for the primary fiscal balance and Net International Reserves (NIR) were exceeded as at the end of September.

The Government recorded a primary fiscal balance of $50.8 billion, which was $10.8 billion more than budgeted, while the NIR stood at $2.44 billion, which was $1 billion above target.

Byles said the figures are “very safe margins” in these “critical quantitative targets”.

“So it seems to us (EPOC) that…Jamaica will meet the most important IMF targets for the 10th quarterly review. The IMF team is in Jamaica, now, and they will be conducting that review over the next week or so. But it looks, to me, as if we will pass, because those quantitative performance criteria have been met quite handsomely,” Byles stated.