Above: new IMF Mission Chief in Jamaica Uma Ramakrishnan (JIS Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The International Monetary Fund has appointed its new mission chief for Jamaica.

Dr Uma Ramakrishnan will be filling the role, succeeding Dr Jan Kees Martijn, who was the first mission chief under Jamaica’s existing four-year $932 million extended fund facility.

Ramakrishnan already visited Jamaica for a programme review this month.

She said the IMF’s Executive Board was “tentatively” set to deliberate on the mission team’s review in June, with Jamaica slated for a $40 million drawdown.

“What is really critical for us (is maintaining) the central focus of the programme, which is the Government’s commitment to achieving the 7.5 per cent primary surplus for the year,” Ramakrishnan said.

Martijn said he was awaiting details on his next IMF assignment.

Jamaica Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips said the government had come “to welcome his advice, his suggestions [and] his reviews as we have gone forward with this programme,…which has begun to have results.”