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JA receives U.S. $476 m from IMF

Jamaica has received three-quarters of its membership quota with the IMF, or 476 million U.S. dollars to shore up its international reserves, thus placing the island in a better position to meet certain external shocks, as well as to maintain stability in the Foreign exchange market.

Jamaica's Minister of Finance, Audley Shaw, today confirmed that the island received three hundred and three-point-four million Special Drawing Rights from the IMF on Friday. The special Drawing Rights is the IMF's unit of currency and is worth about one-point-six U.S. dollars.

This means that Jamaica's drawdown is equivalent to over four hundred and seventy-six million U.S. dollars, or nearly three-quarters of its member's quota with the IMF.

This infusion of funds has bolstered Jamaica's Net International reserves to nearly two billion U.S. dollars, or the equivalent of nearly sixteen weeks of imports of goods and services.

The Special Drawing Rights, or SDR, is an interest-bearing international reserve created by the IMF to supplement the official reserves of the central banks of member countries.

The allocation to Jamaica arose from the impact of the global meltdown on IMF member countries. The fund created a pool of funds totalling two hundred and fifty billion U.S. dollars to help members facing liquidity crisis.

The island's receipt of these funds is not to be confused with the borrowing relationship the island is seeking to resume with the IMF in September, when it will be seeking over a billion U.S. dollars to shore up the country's balance of payment position.

The Bruce Golding-led Jamaican government is busily crafting a supplementary budget to reflect a twenty-percent cut in spending on programs. This is believed to be a key component in a resumed borrowing relationship with the IMF and is seen as a move to cut the burgeoning fiscal deficit.

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