THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to give Jamaica more time to achieve the Wage/Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of nine per cent or less. The deadline has been pushed back to 2019.

Cabinet has approved a Bill entitled the Financial Administration and Audit (Amendment) Act 2017, which will be tabled soon by Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw in the House of Representatives to confirm the change.

The Bill will seek to facilitate the extension of the timeline from March 2017 to March 2019, which will be two years beyond the current four-year Extended Fund Facility agreement, which concludes next March.

The IMF had extended the timeline from 2015/16 to 2016/17 in March last year after the previous the previous Government admitted that meeting the target would have been challenging, following new salary agreements with the public sector trade unions.

The IMF also agreed last September that the Jamaican Government would face what it described as “undesirable policy options”, including tax increases and job cuts, in order to meet the public sector wage target.

The new Bill will also facilitate implementation of the cash-basis International Public Sector Accounting Standards in Central Government.

A team from the IMF arrived in Jamaica yesterday to discuss a new programme for the country, after the current agreement ends next year.

— Balford Henry