‘Don’t even think about it’ - King warns against int’l debt default

KINGSTON, Jamaica - After a couple of highly successful debt-swap programmes in the last three years, two economists have warned that Jamaica should not even contemplate a similar move for its foreign obligations. Such a move, warned Dr Damien King, head of the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, would have devastating consequences for the country on two fronts. The Portia Simpson Miller administration, which carried out the last debt exchange in February, has given no indication that a similar move is being considered for the country's foreign debt. The other debt exchange was undertaken by the previous Jamaica Labour Party administration in 2010.