Ja Can Learn From Barbados’ IMF Experience

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaica can create a platform for economic growth by using the example of Barbados, which stood up to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and offered wage cuts as a viable alternative to the Fund's prescription of devaluation when the country almost ran out of international reserves.
But Dr Peter Henry, dean of New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, said it requires the public and private sector to work together on three critical areas, namely discipline, clarity and trust.
Speaking at the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica's annual economic forum at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston last Thursday, Henry pointed out that in 1991, Barbados was about to run out of foreign exchange reserves and the IMF told the government to devalue the country's currency.