Jamaica’s Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr Nigel Clarke, says the island opened the 2020/21 fiscal year with cash reserves of approximately $90 billion, or more than 4% of GDP. Clarke attributed this was to the policy of amassing the country’s cash reserves to pay down debt. This resul...

Given the nature of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19, variants are likely to emerge and several have emerged all over the world. Variants are a natural part of viral infection and replication. In this regard, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants that cause COVID-19, such as Brazil, UK ...

Friday, 12 March 2021 (PANCAP Coordinating Unit, CARICOM Secretariat): The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic, is facilitating an exciting educational and capacity buil...

The Caribbean Public Health Agency is aware that some countries in the European Union have suspended their AstraZeneca vaccination campaign, as a result of reports of rare blood coagulation disorders in people who had received the vaccine.   This was done as a precautionary measure while a...

CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has congratulated the Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands Hon Charles Washington Misick and his Progressive National Party (PNP) on their resounding victory in the Territory’s recent General Elections. The Secretary-General also commented th...

Message from the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors Programme on International Women’s Day, March 8th 2021 Message by Mr. Yakub Nestor, CARICOM Youth Ambassador, St. Lucia The COVID-19 pandemic has erased decades of progress towards gender equality. From high job losses to exploding burdens of unpaid ...

Outstanding banks loans in Jamaica hit a new record of $1 trillion at the end of 2020, but non-performing loans (NPL) loans grew by more than 40%. Total loans across the banking system increased by 9%, from $915 billion to just over $1.03 trillion at the end of December, but grew by 17% in 2019. ...

MESSAGE FROM AMBASSADOR IRWIN LAROCQUE, SECRETARY-GENERAL, CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY, ON THE OCCASION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 8 March 2021 On 8 March 2021, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) joins the rest of the world in celebrating International Women’s Day, a special observance that ...

In recognition of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the education sector, candidates registered for CAPE®, CSEC® and CCLSC®  will sit these Exams during the period June/July 2021. Ministries of Education will receive the results in the last week of September. CARICOM Ministers...

(PANCAP Coordinating Unit, CARICOM Secretariat): The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic, officially launched a toolkit for social contracting during a virtual event att...