##ness but also because its fortunes were tied to the pace of recovery in the most severely affected economies. moreover, with the economy already hamstrung by a legacy of vast and growing public debt, there was little room for local fiscal stimulus. adopting a longer view of growth and development, the authorities took the opportunity of using the support on offer from the multilaterals to formulate and implement a broad slate of reforms. at the end of the process, the programme promises an even stronger financial architecture, a clear path towards fiscal and debt sustainability and, importantly, the entrenchment of macroeconomic stability as a basis for more investment and steady growth. since february 2010, we have embarked resolutely on the reform path and have made good progress to date. the international monetary fund, which has played a key role in global surveillance and advice, has a unique and privileged view of cross - country developments. it is not very often, however, that we have the opportunity to have senior officials from that institution discuss the issues and solutions that are specific to our region and for them to receive feedback on those views from practitioners across the region. discussions at events such as the annual meetings of the fund and the world bank need to satisfy the needs of a large number of constituents. they therefore tend to be either too “ global ” in their plenary discussions or too fragmented in their selection of issues related to the caribbean for there to be meaningful regional perspectives. we therefore welcome this initiative to present the regional economic outlook right here in jamaica and the bank of jamaica is happy to be the appointed place for what will follow over the next two hours or so. so, again, let me welcome you to this presentation of the regional economic outlook by the imf and the discussion to follow. we look forward to your active participation. thank you.

richard byles : update and outlook for the jamaican economy monetary policy press statement by mr richard byles, governor of the bank of jamaica, at the quarterly monetary policy report press conference, kingston, 21 february 2024. * * * introduction good morning and welcome to our first quarterly monetary policy report press conference for 2024. the year has started with inflation being above the bank's inflation target. statin reported last week that headline inflation at january 2024 was 7. 4 per cent, which is higher than the outturns for the previous three months, and above the bank's target of 4 to 6 per cent. core inflation, however, which excludes food and fuel prices from the consumer price index, was 5. 9 per cent, which is lower than the 7. 1 per cent recorded in january 2023. the inflation outturn at january is higher than the bank had projected in november 2023. as we communicated then, in the wake of the announcement by the minister of finance and the public service of the temporary two - phase reduction in jutc fares, we had estimated that the announced measure would have had a material impact on tempering the inflationary pressures of the ppv fare increases. inflation was consequently projected to generally remain within the target range, except for december 2023 and a few months in 2024. upon review, the bank now recognises that it had overestimated the impact of the reductions in jutc fares. the two - phase reduction is now estimated to have an offsetting impact of only 0. 2 percentage points on annual inflation, with the first reduction already evident in the cpi data for january 2024. notwithstanding the welcomed and offsetting reduction in jutc fares, the higher than targeted headline inflation at january continued to largely reflect the impact of the increase in the ppv fares as well as the effect of wage increases throughout the economy. the inflation outturn also reflected high agricultural food inflation which has been the result of the adverse weather conditions that affected the island in 2023. with this brief background, i will now speak in further detail about the bank's latest monetary policy considerations and decisions. monetary policy decision the bank's monetary policy committee ( mpc ) met on the 16th and the 19th of february and was advised that inflation is projected to remain above the bank's target range until june 2025, largely because of the impact of the temporary price shocks which i outlined earlier, including the projected impact of the second phase of