KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition spokesman on Finance, Dr Peter Phillips, says that the government needs to say more on the issue of debt reduction.

“We have been caught, as a country, in a debt trap for two to three decades and we need to feel that the government is not just simply relaxing its efforts in this regard,” Dr Phillips told a post budget presentation press briefing at the headquarters of the People’s National Party (PNP) in Kingston this afternoon.

“We need to have a better statement of purpose from the government in this regard,” Phillips said, in reference to the presentation of Minister of Finance and Planning, Audley Shaw, in opening the budget debate on May 12 in the House of Representatives.

The government, however, has insisted on a preference for a programme which places growth as its “highest priority”, in preference to a no or low growth austerity programme.

In his presentation, Shaw said that the government has received a clear mandate from the Jamaican people to place growth at the forefront of its economic policy.

Balford Henry