Jamaica may be about to suffer the worst economic crisis in the country's history, according to former Prime Minister Edward Seaga.

Seaga, who was yesterday addressing a National Council on Youth Leadership at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, said the current global economic crisis would hit Jamaica much harder than that of the 1980s.

"What we are concerned about is if the automobile industry really goes into a deep depression, there will be less demand for alumina," Seaga said. "So then we are going to go back to where we were in the early '80s where, with the shortfall in exports of alumina bauxite, we are going to suffer a reduction in our foreign exchange earnings."

Greater threat

He said the current situation is a greater threat to Jamaica as other countries are sharing the economic crisis.

"In the case of the 1980s, there was a very steep fall in foreign exchange earnings. [To stop this] I asked Washington to buy a significant amount of our bauxite, and they did buy quite a few million tonnes of bauxite which enabled us to survive at a time when it was absolutely critical," Seaga, who was prime minister from 1980 to 1989, said. "Well there will be no such thing this time. This time, the US is in a problem. So they are not going to be among those who are going to be of assistance. Hence, you have a situation where the possibility exists that the alumina industry and the bauxite industry in Jamaica is going to have a severe downturn which is going to lose us foreign exchange earnings."

- Freddie Pragnell