Above: Minister Peter Phillips (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica’s Cabinet has signed off on a series of measures required to advance the country’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips said at a press briefing Monday.

Phillips, who was speaking following a three-day Cabinet retreat, said the technical negotiating team could now return to the bargaining table for the “final round of negotiations.”

According Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips, who is leading the negotiations, the Cabinet agreed on a programme of debt reduction. That plan will begin by increasing the primary surplus for the next fiscal year from 6.3 percent to 7.5 percent of GDP. That level will be maintained through the entire period of the programme through 2016/2017.

Other measures will reportedly include taxes, wage restraint, a prioritization of expenditures and divestment of public assets.

“It is clear that these measures will require sacrifice from all sectors of the society,” he said. “However, that is the price we all have to pay if we are to achieve macroeconomic stability, which is necessary for growth and for job creation.”

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said the Cabint was “united” in its commitment to achieve an agreement with the IMF.

But she said that Jamaicans recognized that “there is a need for us to develop a complementary programme geared at encouraging investment, stimulating the economy and, in general, creating a more equitable society for the majority of the population.”

On that front, Phillips said the Cabinet had insisted that the burden be “equitably shared,” with the most vulnerable in society being protected.

The final medium-term economic and financial policy statement will include a “specified floor for social expenditures,” he said, as part of the overall programme.

“We are going to commit, as part of the programme, that there will be a minimum, not maximum, level of expenditure on social programmes, including PATH, educational assistance and health services,” he said.

He said that talks with the IMF “cannot be carried out in the public domain because of their sensitive nature.”

The Minister pledged a full report “as soon as there is clearance on both sides.”