KINGSTON, Jamaica — This year’s Budget Debate (2017/18) will commence on Thursday, March 9, Leader of the House of Representatives, Derrick Smith, informed the House of Representatives, yesterday.

According to him, the ceremonial opening of the new parliamentary year on Thursday, February 9, will be followed by the tabling of the 2017/18 Estimates of Expenditure later that afternoon by Minister of Finance and Planning, Audley Shaw.

The estimates will be reviewed by the House of Representatives’ Standing Finance Committee, made up of all 63 Members of Parliament (MPs), between February 28 and possibly March 3.

The debate will be opened on March 9 by Shaw, followed by Opposition spokesman on finance and planning, Dr Peter Phillips on March 14; Leader of the Opposition, Portia Simpson Miller on March 16; and Prime Minister Andrew Holness on March 21.

The Minister of Finance and the Public Service will close the debate on March 22.

Jamaica and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached an agreement to make $1.7 billion in funding available over the next three years, as the Government seeks to further reduce the debt load and jump-start the economy.

The stand-by agreement made US$430 million available immediately after the IMF board approves it. It replaces a four-year IMF loan that Jamaica took on after it restructured its debt in 2013.

Holness says the Government has enough foreign reserves, and intends to treat the new agreement as an “insurance policy” against unforeseen economic shocks”, such as natural disaster and commodity price drops.

Balford Henry