EDITORIAL - Sliver of light in Budget

KINGSTON, Jamaica - As much as we are inclined to commend the Government for the Budget it tabled in Parliament last week, we will reserve comment until the finance minister, Peter Phillips, presents the rest of his funding programme, including the allocations for the multilateral financial institutions (MFIs).
For, as they say, the devil's in the detail. Further, as is evidenced by its failure so far to tie up arrangements with the MFIs, this Government does not inspire confidence in its ability to accomplish anything within its promised time frames.
The consequence of its failure to formally conclude the US$750-million extended fund facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been a sliding domestic currency and, worse, collapsed business and consumer confidence. Further, the administration has shown itself shy about, if not inept at, explaining its economic strategies and tactics - assuming it has these - to the Jamaican people and mobilising them around the programme, as it promised to do.