Monday, December 15, 2014 | 7:33 PM
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Generation 2000 (G2K) has again expressed concern about the effects of the sliding Jamaican dollar on the poor and most vulnerable, this time during the current Christmas season.
G2K, the young professional affiliate of the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), in a release today noted that since December 1 the dollar has lost over 60 cents in value against its US counterpart, moving from $113.58 cents to $114.12 cents at the start of trading Monday morning.
“On Friday the dollar traded as high as $118 dollars against the US dollar,” G2K pointed out.
“It appears as if the Minister of Finance just does not understand, or is clearly insensitive to the effect that that the rapid devaluation is having on the pockets of Jamaican,” the G2K release said.
“We are all quite aware that there is a direct relationship between the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar and the rise in basic food prices. Therefore, if urgent steps aren’t taken to stem this slide, we are all looking at basic food items which have increased by more than 30 percent since December 2011 are going to see another significant rise during this Christmas.”
“The Minister continues to fail to realize that his job description requires him to do far more than just meet IMF targets. His response cannot be to simply curtail Government capital expenditure to meet the primary surplus demand. The minister is slowly stifling our economy and the hopes and dreams of every Jamaican,” G2K stated.
It said that enough is not being done to compliment IMF policies, with reforms that would soften the effects of austerity measures and growth of small businesses. And that, contrary to the concept of creating incentives to start and develop businesses, new taxes have been forced upon businesses across the board.
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Sliding dollar affecting Christmas shopping — G2K
