THE executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to review Jamaica’s performance under the new Precautionary Stand-by Arrangement (PSBA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April.

This was disclosed yesterday by the mission chief of the IMF team currently in Jamaica, Dr Uma Ramakrishnan, at a press briefing at Jamaica House.

Dr Ramakrishnan said that Jamaica was “off to a good start” within the first three months of the new agreement, which became effective in November last year.

She said that her team had reached a preliminary agreement with the Administration on a set of policies aimed at completing the review, prior to consideration by the executive board.

But Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the briefing that, while he was happy with the results of the Government’s performance under the new programme, he was “not celebrating”.

Holness said that he wanted the country to maintain a “level of sobriety”, as it was not yet out of the woods, and fiscal discipline had to be maintained. He said that the Government has to evolve to a point where it is able to take almost full control of the fiscal environment, to ensure that it is moving in the right fiscal direction.

“Indeed, I keep repeating those words, the right management of public finances,” he emphasised.

He said that with or without the IMF, Jamaica has to take responsibility as an independent country for its fiscal management.

“I am not celebrating, because we do not expect to be always in an IMF programme,” he told the briefing, which followed a meeting between him, the visiting team, Finance Minister Audley Shaw, and his junior finance minister.

“Jamaica must take responsibility for its fiscal policy, and I thought today I would use this platform to send this message that we must become in charge of our own fiscal affairs,” Holness stated.

He said that, over time, successive administrations had not followed good fiscal policies which largely accounted for the country’s current economic situation.

“On this, the first anniversary of my Government, the greatest challenge I see is for administrations to maintain discipline in these areas, to maintain fiscal discipline,” he stated.

He said that it requires constant vigilance and the ability to see the reality for what it is, to balance priorities and, in the area of public finance, to be prudent and responsible.

He noted that it is his job to ensure that the programme stays on track, and that everything is done to ensure good policy and the effective administration of the institution’s policy.

In his contribution to the briefing, Shaw recalled that the Government’s economic programme was on track to reach 1.7 per cent growth for the current fiscal year, as well as for the primary budget surplus of seven per cent and the “main anchor” which is reducing the debt-to-GDP figure to 60 per cent by 2025.

Dr Ramakrishnan noted that, on approval of the preliminary agreement, Jamaica would have access to US$170 million, increasing its cumulative access to credit to about US$575 million.

She added that the “strong start”, relating to the Government’s performance since the agreement came into effect last November, included the performance of the tax revenues and the net international reserves, both of which exceeded expectations.

She noted that Jamaica has experienced seven consecutive quarters of positive growth in the economy, and was on track to achieve a 1.7 per cent growth rate for the current fiscal year, which should continue into an increased rate of two per cent by the end of the next fiscal year, which begins April 1.

She also noted that the 2017/18 budget has been predicated on a primary surplus of seven per cent, and the continued shift from direct to indirect taxation, as well as a revenue neutral package pre-empted by the final tranche of the $1.5 million increase in the income tax threshold.