JAMAICA could return to pre-Hurricane Melissa levels of economic output as early as the April-to-June quarter of 2027, significantly sooner than previously expected as the year-on-year contraction in the economy narrows and reconstruction gathers momentum.

The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) said Tuesday that the current trajectory suggests the economy could regain the level of output recorded before Melissa within 1.5 to two years of the hurricane, compared with an earlier expectation that recovery would take about three years and extend into fiscal year 2028/29.

“Note, however, that full recovery — to include rebuilding efforts and replacing housing stock, public infrastructure and livelihoods — will be over a more extended period, possibly three to five years,” PIOJ Director General Dr Wayne Henry said at the institute’s quarterly economic briefing.