Dear Editor,

The private sector in Jamaica appears to be hoarding its capital in stocks and foreign exchange accounts, instead of massive reinvestment in the economy, leaving the Government no choice but to turn to the Jamaican Diaspora to pick up the slack without giving them the right to vote.

Since 1976 total household consumption in the Jamaican economy averaged around 72 per cent of gross domestic product, of which direct remittance investment impact accounted for 53 per cent of total consumption spending.

Household expenditure outpaced private sector investment (capital formation) by 4:1, which only accounts for an average of 23 per cent of the same time period.

Current monetary policies administration by the Bank of Jamaican (BOJ) points to a very interesting investment framework in which private capital for economic development of the broader economy is held exclusively in an almost perfect asymmetry defined within the overlapping boundaries of investment returns between the Jamaica Stock Exchange and the foreign currency exchange market spreads in a bidirectional movement.

The Government must seek ways to unlock Jamaica’s private sector wealth to drive economic development beyond the confinement of equities and foreign exchange in the the broader economy.

Silbert Barrett

net_sbarrett@hotmail.com