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  • April 2011 (Revised February 2016)
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Jamaica's Anemic Growth: The IMF, China and the Debt(th) Trap

By: Rafael Di Tella and Natalie Kindred
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:34
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Abstract

This case describes the economic development problems faced by the small Caribbean-island country of Jamaica over most of the past half-century. The Jamaican economy showed relatively strong growth in the 1960s but stagnated in the 1970s. By the end of that decade, Jamaica was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for balance-of-payments support. Over the 1980s and early 1990s, the unpopular policy conditions associated with IMF loan programs made the Fund a lightning rod for criticism over Jamaica's lack of economic progress. Jamaicans celebrated the end of IMF borrowing in the mid-1990s, but a severe financial crisis later that decade created a new layer of economic problems. In 2010, in the context of the global economic downturn, Jamaica once again returned to the IMF for financing support. This case allows students to explore the complicated economic difficulties faced by Jamaica, which remains burdened by a self-reinforcing set of interrelated factors, including high public debt, a sluggish private sector, an inefficient public sector, poverty, and crime, among others.

Keywords

Government Administration; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; International Finance; Crime and Corruption; Poverty; Private Sector; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Economy; Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Jamaica

Citation

Di Tella, Rafael, and Natalie Kindred. "Jamaica's Anemic Growth: The IMF, China and the Debt(th) Trap." Harvard Business School Case 711-031, April 2011. (Revised February 2016.)
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About The Author

Rafael M. Di Tella

Business, Government and the International Economy
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Related Work

    • April 2011 (Revised February 2016)
    • Faculty Research

    Jamaica's Anemic Growth: The IMF, China and the Debt(th) Trap

    By: Rafael Di Tella and Natalie Kindred
Related Work
  • Jamaica's Anemic Growth: The IMF, China and the Debt(th) Trap By: Rafael Di Tella and Natalie Kindred
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