MANCHESTER, Jamaica – Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has refuted claims that Jamaica is in a recession.

“By all accounts Jamaica is not in a recession. We are very cognisant of the fact however that there are challenges, but we are confident that the Jamaican economy is strong and will rebound. In the same way that we have rebounded after the pandemic, we will rebound from the impacts of Hurricane Beryl and Tropical Storm Raphael. The Jamaican economy is strong and the Jamaican economy is resilient,” he said on Friday.

Holness told his audience at the handing over of a two-bedroom house in Dobson near Christiana ,that he has taken note of recent reports in the media regarding the country’s economy.

“We have seen headlines and articles suggesting that the Jamaican economy is in recession. A recession is a natural part of what they call the business cycle, the economic cycle. Sometimes the economy goes up and sometimes it goes down. There are all kinds of things which can cause the economy to go down,” he explained.

“One of them is for example weather events, storms, hurricanes, floods that damage economic activity. Another form of impact on our economy is sometimes global issues which we have no control over; pandemic, wars, increase in commodity prices that we use as inputs in our economy. That can cause the economy to go into a recession…” added Holness.

He explained why the economy has not shown growth over the last two quarters.

“We had Hurricane Beryl and that impacted the agricultural sector in a significant way and what happened after Hurricane Beryl. We had a sustained period of heavy rains which literally destroyed our road infrastructure and then we had another weather event this time a Tropical Storm Raphael, so we have been hit twice by weather events which have had an impact on our productive capacity in the economy,” said Holness.

“That in itself however, does not create a recession, because we have been building an economy that is resilient, meaning when things hit us we are able to absorb the hit and bounce back,” he added.

On Friday the Observer’s front page story headlined ‘Sweeping cuts Spending control in tight 2025/26 recession budget’ pointed to the Government’s plans to slash its annual spending by $126 billion, reducing the total budget to $1.26 trillion for the next fiscal year, even as the country grapples with a recession.

READ: Sweeping cuts Spending control in tight 2025/26 recession budget

Despite the cuts, critical funding for the upcoming general election and infrastructure projects, including major road and drainage improvements, remain intact.

– Kasey Williams