EPOC: Inflation Hits A High of 10.7 %

Inflation hits a high of 10.7 % – Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Chairman Keith Duncan says the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is projecting inflation to peak at 9 per cent to 11 per cent over the next 10 to 12 months.

Inflation hits a high, however, there are upside risks to this forecast on account of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The revelations were made during a media briefing hosted by the Economic Programme Oversight Committee, reviewing April 2021 to February 2022 period and the recent budget.

In a BOJ report on March 29, the policy rate was increased by 4-point -5 percent the Central Bank noted actions would be taken on the next policy announcement in May.

In February, fiscal targets, revenue, and grants including the fiscal and primary balance targets were behind budgeted targets. Meanwhile, net international reserves saw a decline in December 2021, however, remained strong at just under 4 billion us dollars.

EPOC Chairman says the GDP has increased. He also alluded to the public sector Wage Bill which the Finance Ministry will have to amend and noted the need for public sector transformation to be focused on tangible and quantitative methods to realize the efficiencies through shared services, performance-based compensation, and digitization. More in this report: