Western Hemisphere > Jamaica

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 181 items for

  • Type: Journal Issue x
Clear All Modify Search
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department, International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept., and International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
The paper briefs the Executive Board on the initial considerations on CBDC. These cover a framework to guide countries’ CBDC exploration, as well as implications for monetary policy transmission, capital flow management measures, and financial inclusion.
Hassan Adan, Jean-Marc B. Atsebi, Nikolay Gueorguiev, Mr. Jiro Honda, and Manabu Nose
Despite the criticality of tax administration (TA) reforms in enhancing domestic revenue mobilization, few studies have attempted to quantify the revenue impact of such reforms. This paper fills this gap by estimating the revenue yields associated with various tax administration capabilities, based on the International Survey on Tax Administration (ISORA), the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT), and TA reform episodes datasets (identified by Akitoby et al., 2020). It uses a Hausman-Taylor cross-country panel regression and an event study for specific TA reform episodes. Our results (using the ISORA data) show that an increase in the overall strength of TA from the 40th percentile to the 60th percentile is associated with an increase in tax revenue by 1.8 pp. of GDP (with a 95 percent confidence range of 0.5‒2.6 pp. of GDP). Similarly, the event-study assessment shows that sustained TA reforms led to an increase in tax revenues between 2 to 3 pp. of GDP, in line with the experience in three country cases (Jamaica, Rwanda, and Senegal). Also, the revenue yields are increasing over time to more than 3 pp. of GDP after the 6th year following a comprehensive reform. The analysis also highlights the significant impact of specific measures including: i) strengthening compliance risks management, ii) enhancing public accountability, iii) establishing Large Taxpayer Offices (LTO), iv) strengthening accountability and transparency, and v) enhancing timely filing of tax declarations.
Ashley Lannquist and Brandon Tan
Financial inclusion is a key policy objective that central banks, especially those in emerging and low-income countries, are considering for retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). If properly designed to address the barriers to financial inclusion, CBDCs have the opportunity to gain acceptance by the financially excluded for digital payments. CBDC can then serve as an entry point to the broader formal financial system. CBDC has special aspects that may benefit financial inclusion, such as being a risk-free and widely acceptable form of digital money, availability for offline payments, and potentially lower costs and greater accessibility. However, CBDC is not a panacea to financial inclusion, and additional experience is needed to fully understand its potential impact.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
Jamaica’s commitment to macroeconomic stability and strong policy frameworks continue to allow the country to navigate the difficult global environment. Strong growth continued over the last fiscal year, and sound macroeconomic policies are focused on prioritizing sustainability, supporting growth, and facilitating the convergence of inflation to the midpoint of the central bank’s target band. There are significant risks ahead—from tighter than expected global financial conditions, commodity price volatility, and natural disasters—but the economic outlook remains a positive one.
Ms. Katherine Baer, Ms. Margaret Cotton, Elizabeth Gavin, Cindy Negus, and Katrina R Williams
This technical note provides an overview of current issues and ideas that revenue administrations can consider regarding gender equality. It discusses the interactions between revenue administrations and gender equality and explores how revenue administrations can administer gender-sensitive tax laws effectively and apply a gender lens when administering tax or trade laws with a view to reducing barriers for women’s employment, entrepreneurship, and trade. It also provides practical considerations for a revenue administration in building gender perspectives in reform plans and shares several examples that highlight targeted measures that have led to positive outcomes in several countries.
International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.
This paper presents Jamaica’s Technical Assistance report on climate public investment management assessment (C-PIMA). Jamaica’s dependence on fossil fuels imports for energy generation calls for a transition to renewables even though Jamaica’s contribution to the worldwide greenhouse gases emissions is insignificant. Climate risks and natural disasters pose major threats to Jamaica’s public infrastructure and there is considerable scope to strengthen climate-responsive public investment. The C-PIMA assessment makes eight high-priority recommendations, which could improve climate-related public investment management processes in Jamaica and support green and sustainable economic growth. Progress has been made in the development of a comprehensive climate change policy framework and in planning for disaster risk financing. However, coordination across the central government and with municipal corporations is weak with no institution positioned strategically to lead either adaptation or mitigation related investments. The paper provides an action plan for the implementation of these recommendations over the short and medium term, identifies responsible agencies and areas where additional technical assistance could be useful.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This paper highlights Jamaica’s Request for an Arrangement under the Precautionary Liquidity Line (PLL) and Request for an Arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). Jamaica has been buffeted by a difficult global environment—from coronavirus disease, the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing tightening of global financial conditions. IMF assesses that Jamaica qualifies for the PLL, performing strongly in three out of five qualification areas and not substantially underperforming in other areas. The authorities plan to treat the PLL as precautionary. The arrangement would support efforts to strengthen physical and fiscal resilience to climate change, advance decarbonization of the economy, and manage the associated transition risks. The RSF is expected to catalyze funding for Jamaica’s climate priorities from other official lenders and the private sector. The RSF will support Jamaica’s ambitious agenda to accelerate the transition to renewable power generation, increase resilience to climate change, enhance the climate focus in fiscal policy frameworks, and strengthen management of climate risks by financial institutions.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
The 2022 Article IV Consultation highlights that Jamaica has been buffeted by a difficult global environment—from coronavirus disease (COVID), the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing tightening of global financial conditions. The authorities provided targeted support to vulnerable households and firms during the pandemic but promptly scaled it back as conditions normalized. Similarly, in the wake of the war in Ukraine, domestic food and energy prices adjusted in line with shifts in international markets while targeted support was provided to the poor. Discussions focused on the prompt post-COVID fiscal consolidation and monetary policy tightening, which were instrumental to secure debt sustainability, respond to global shocks and aid the return of inflation to the target band. The IMF staff assess that maintaining high primary balances over the medium term remains important for debt sustainability. The Article IV consultation places a special focus on climate change. Despite contributing insignificantly to global greenhouse gas emissions, Jamaica’s geographical and socio-economic characteristics make the country vulnerable to climate events that are becoming larger and more frequent due to global warming.
Mr. David A. Grigorian
Sovereign domestic debt restructurings have become more common in recent years and touched upon a growing share of total public debt. This paper offers a simple framework for policymakers to think about the decision whether to restructure domestic sovereign debt as part of an effort to reduce overall public indebtedness. It also highlights a rather wide range of technical, legal, and operational issues a sovereign may face while restructuring domestic debt. As expected, factors such as debt reduction required to achieve sustainability, fiscal savings from a restructuring, and economic costs of a restructuring are key inputs into the decision making regarding a restructuring, but so are factors such as the composition of debt, financial stability costs, and crisis preparedness, all of which are discussed in the paper.
International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.
This paper reviews experience with the safeguards assessment policy since the last review in 2015. The policy is subject to periodic reviews by the Executive Board. The policy’s main objective is to mitigate risks of misuse of Fund resources and misreporting of monetary data under Fund arrangements. Consistent with past reviews, an external panel of experts provided an independent perspective on the implementation of the policy.