Finance Minister Fayval Williams has suggested that if there is a change in Government, the financial markets in Jamaica and overseas would react negatively.

Williams made the comment while opening the 2025/26 Budget Debate at Gordon House.

Noting that Jamaica was closing the 2024/25 fiscal year “strong” and on a path to get to debt to GDP of less than 60 per cent by fiscal year 2027/28, Williams said, “If anyone doubts the wisdom of remaining on this path towards 60 per cent debt to GDP then they should get off this path and see how quickly and how negatively the markets would react”.

“For starters, the US$5.6 billion of net international reserves would vanish overnight as the financial sector loses confidence and that would cascade to the rest of the Jamaican economy and to international markets. Confidence, once lost, is very difficult to restore,” she added.

Williams charged that “There are some persons who have been trying to rile up Jamaicans to be loud about getting some of the net international reserves (NIR) to be spent now, to take care of short-term wants”.

“That is downright irresponsible,” she remarked.

She stressed that the NIR “is our cushion against the vagaries of the outside world”.

Williams said, “The main purpose of a country’s net international reserves is to act as a financial safety net, providing a cushion against external shocks like currency crises, or sudden disruptions in capital inflows, allowing the country to meet its foreign exchange obligations and maintain stability in its domestic currency by intervening in the foreign exchange market if needed”.