G20 – what number is Jamaica?

Probably very low down on the list of priorities (if indeed it is on the list at all) when it comes to the discussions between the 20 richest nations leaders, going on in London, is poor Jamaica.

It hasn’t stopped Jamaica’s Finance Minister Audley Shaw from trying. 

He’s been going cap in hand with his weak voice, asking for help from the inter American Development Bank. 

He has been saying that Jamaica needs more money “urgently” for investment in infrastructure and to replace all the jobs that have been lost recently in the bauxite industry and elsewhere.

He said it was essential “to put in place economic stimulus packages for small, heavily indebted, and highly vulnerable economies like Jamaica  “

I’ve been trying to blog about the vulnerability of JA’s economy here for some time, and this is the first time I’ve heard that a senior govt voice has spelled it out clearly like this.

Asking for loans on top of the debt already crippling Jamaica is probably the only thing that can be done right now.  So good luck to Mr Audley Shaw, but according to this article, he doesn’t instil much sense of hope. 

jamaica’s banks during the crisis

do we believe this guy?

I’m talking about Dennis Cohen – deputy manager of the NCB group – Jamaica’s biggest bank, trying to allay fears that the US financial crisis will not effect JA as they only hold a tenth of their assets overseas.  Well, as I have argued on this blog before, see this post , the fall in remittences from the US and the UK will probably take a serious knock and I find out today that they already have – predicted to be 1.7 per cent less this year compared to 2007.  Read more about the economic downturn effecting Jamaica here.