KINGSTON, Jamaica —Leader of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) Dr Peter Phillips today thanked International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde for supporting the 2013 agreement signed by the then PNP led-government and the fund.

The party in a release this evening said that this agreement was the blueprint for Jamaica’s economic reform programme, which laid the foundation for sustained economic growth and job creation.

According to the PNP, at the IMF’s High Level Caribbean Forum held yesterday at the Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston, Lagarde noted the successful implementation of the standby agreement five years ago and recalled that at the time of the rollout, very few people thought it would have seen the tremendous level of success it achieved.

And during a courtesy call paid by Lagarde on the Opposition Leader at his West King’s House Road office, Dr Phillips reiterated his appreciation for the IMF chief’s personal role in securing the 2013 stand-by agreement which he said “enabled Jamaica to see to the reduction in the country’s debt and the decrease in stifling tensions that gripped the nation’s financial structures”.

Dr Phillips said, while the nation continues to be an example of fiscal achievement under the IMF interventions, too many of our people are not enjoying the benefits as in most cases their standards of living have fallen. Jamaica must focus on the fundamental structural impediments to growth, which will result in improved standards of living, the Opposition leader said.