KINGSTON, Jamaica — The country’s wage-to-gross domestic product (GDP) target of nine per cent of GDP has been delayed to 2017/18.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw told this morning’s first meeting of the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) of the House of Representatives, which is reviewing the estimates in the 2017/18 Budget at Gordon House, that the figure should fall to 9.5 percent by the end of March this year, and to nine per cent by the end of March next year.

The nine per cent target was previously set for the end of 2015/16 and then 2016/17 but was delayed by primarily by the previous government’s failure to sufficiently contain public sector workers pay and fringe benefits to meet the target, through a programme of public sector transformation and pension reform.

However Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said that the reforms will be a priority of his government in 2017/18.

The SFC’s review of the estimates will continue until Friday.

Balford Henry