EDITORIAL - The IMF, Cabinet and the retreat

KINGSTON, Jamaica - We are not as concerned as most that Jamaica hasn't yet concluded a borrowing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For failure to conclude a deal will further narrow our options in the financial markets and perhaps force us into a cold-turkey kicking of our borrowing habit. Our greater fear is that the Government lacks the will to implement the policies that, with or without an IMF agreement, will be necessary if Jamaica is not to be sucked irretrievably deep into a fiscal black hole around which we have thrashed for too long. The core of Jamaica's crisis is that we have become a debt junkie, which shows in our national debt that at upwards of 140 per cent of gross domestic product rivals Greece and is worse than most of Europe's other sick economies.