SeagaOPPOSITION LEADER, Edward Seaga, has said that the decision by the Government to revise the target for reducing debt to the level of national output, was a further indication of the inappropriateness of its economic model.
"You don't cure the problem by postponing the inevitable," Mr. Seaga told The Gleaner Friday. "What the Government is saying is that we failed this time but don't worry, in three years' time we will get it right. If you postpone it for three years, that will not change anything."
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced last Thursday that the Government had pushed back by one year, its target for bringing down the country's debt to the level of national output.
He told the opening session of last week's Cabinet retreat at Jamaica House, that the ratio will now be reduced to 120 per cent by fiscal year 2006/2007 and to 100 per cent by fiscal year 2007/2008. In its election manifesto last year, the governing People's National Party (PNP) had projected a reduction of the debt to GDP ration to 100 per cent by 2006 as part of its strategy to manage the national debt and reduce debt servicing costs.
But Mr. Seaga said last Friday that there was no element in the current economic
model which would provide growth. He referred to his recent comments in Parliament
on the Government's economic model in which he called on the Government to "change
course...change the model which has persistently failed to a model which can
consistently produce."
He said that the change could not be postponed because, "the economy cannot survive another adventure without knowledge where it is going."
He said that it was time for Government to take the public fully into its confidence, "to develop a road map for guidance to ensure that the maximum willingness will exist to chart a new and safe course for the future."
