OPPOSITION spokesman on Trade, Industry and Global Logistics Anthony Hylton has charged that Jamaica has undergone a decade of fiscal discipline without transformation, a scenario he argues disproportionately affects Jamaicans at the lower end of the economic ladder.

Hylton stated his position in the House of Representatives on Tuesday during his contribution to the Sectoral Debate.

Using the motivational business fable Who Moved My Cheese? Hylton said its lesson is simple but profound.

“As we continue this Sectoral Debate on the 2026/27 Budget, I ask this Government a very simple question: You clearly see that the cheese has moved, so where is the strategy to find it?”

Declaring that the Opposition is fair in its assessment, Hylton acknowledged that the fiscal consolidation undertaken over the last decade has been substantial.

“Debt-to-GDP [gross domestic product] ratios have declined, primary surpluses have been sustained, inflation management has improved, and macroeconomic stability has been real and hard-won.

“Both administrations deserve measured credit for maintaining that discipline because the sacrifices required to achieve it were significant and felt by the Jamaican people,” said Hylton.

“But stability is not development. Stability is simply the foundation upon which development must be built. A stable foundation only matters if something transformative is eventually constructed upon it,” added Hylton.

The Opposition spokesman argued that after 10 years of the Jamaica Labour Party Administration, the level of structural transformation Jamaica requires has simply not materialised.

“The evidence is all around us. Manufacturing’s contribution to GDP has not significantly expanded; value-added exports have not meaningfully grown; [and] we remain heavily-dependent on tourism, bauxite, and remittances, the same pillars supporting the economy a generation ago,” argued Hylton.

He further argued that the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, once heralded as a major source of middle-class opportunity and employment growth, has plateaued and now faces an existential threat from automation and artificial intelligence, a threat the current budget “barely acknowledges”.

According to Hylton, the logistics hub remains more aspiration than implementation.

“Vision 2030, now beyond its midpoint, has seen key structural targets quietly deferred, delayed, or abandoned altogether,” he said.

Regarding the 2026/27 Budget, Hylton charged that, “What the Minister of Finance [Fayval Williams] delivered was essentially a hurricane recovery report presented as a growth budget.”

He said while the Opposition acknowledges the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa — US$12.2 billion in losses, nearly 57 per cent of GDP — lives disrupted, and livelihoods destroyed, the Government has not articulated a strategy for transformation.

“The Jamaican people deserve more than crisis management, they deserve a coherent plan for growth and national advancement. And the pressures facing ordinary Jamaicans continue to intensify,” Hylton told the House.

He added, “When oil is trading near US$100 a barrel while this Budget was built on the assumption of US$60, someone will pay that difference. It will not be the ministers seated on the government benches. It will be the single mother filling her gas tank. It will be the farmer trying to operate his irrigation pump. It will be the small manufacturer watching electricity costs consume already narrow profit margins.

“These are the realities confronting Jamaicans every day; realities that cannot be solved by macroeconomic talking points alone.”

The West St Andrew Member of Parliament charged that one to two per cent growth after a natural disaster such as Hurricane Melissa is not transformation, but survival.

“Jamaica deserves more than endurance, it deserves direction. Discipline without direction ultimately becomes endurance without destination, and the Jamaican people have endured long enough without seeing the level of transformation their sacrifices were supposed to produce,” said Hylton.