‘It’s a fallacy’

Opposition spokesman on finance Julian Robinson has dismissed as a “fallacy” the rosy picture of the Jamaican economy presented by Finance Minister Fayval Williams during Wednesday’s post-Cabinet media briefing.

Among other things, Williams noted that the rate of recovery from the fallout caused by Hurricane Melissa, which destroyed large swathes of south- and north-western parishes last October, was 18 months ahead of earlier projections by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).

However, Robinson is pointing to inflation running at nearly eight per cent and a $30-billion tax revenue shortfall as signs of a struggling economy.