cost of living

Jamaica’s economy shrank by 11.1 percent in the peak COVID year — one of the steepest contractions recorded anywhere in the Caribbean — before embarking on a recovery the IMF projected at 8.2 percent growth in 2021/22. The Fund’s first full pandemic-era assessment of Jamaica captures a country navigating rising debt, climbing inflation, and a rare current account surplus all at once, with the outcome for 2022 hinging on a tourism-led rebound that remains fragile.