JAMAICA'S INFLATION rate is set to reach a high of 13 per cent during the current financial year. This is the result of price increases resulting from a depreciation in the foreign exchange rate, the effects of fiscal measures announced by Dr. Omar Davies, Finance and Planning Minister, as well as increases in transportation costs.
Derick Latibeaudiere, Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, said yesterday that events in the first quarter of fiscal year 2003/
2004 and a higher-than-expected inflation forecast for the September quarter, meant there had to be reassessment of the 7 to 8 per cent annual inflation target.
The revised forecast of between 11 and 13 per cent meant it would be the first time in seven years that inflation would have reached double digits. Inflation reached six per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year, the highest quarterly rate in Jamaica since March 1996, Mr. Latibeaudiere said at a press briefing at the Bank's auditorium in downtown Kingston.
