Case Study → Jamaica’s Structural Adjustment Programme (Edexcel A-Level Geography): Revision Notes
📚 Revision Notes
Case Study → Jamaica's Structural Adjustment Programme
| Context | ● In the 1970s, Jamaica built up debts paying for social programmes. Then interest rates soared in the 1980s |
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| Role of the IMF & WB | ● Imposed SAPs in return for the loans in Jamaica needed to stabilise its struggling economy ● In 1996, the WB and IMF started the Heavily Indebted Poor Country initiative (HIPC), which reduced the debt of the poorest countries ● This has helped 36 countries (30 of them in Africa). ● Jamaica did not qualify for HIPC and remains heavily indebted ● In 2013, the IMF provided $1 bn loan to Jamaica p but with conditions of a pay freeze, which amounted to a 20% wage cut |
| amaica's gov | ● Bought in higher taxes and caps on waves, prices and imports, then devalued the currency |
| SAPs negative impact Social | ● People could not afford to buy food, fuel, clothing ● Health care and education spending were cut ● In 1985 there were riots failed to achieve their goals of economic development for Jamaica ● The Jamaican economy was producing less than before the SAPs ● Jamaica's dent had grown to be 18-% of GDP (they were 61% in 1979) ● Paying interest on the debts took up 25% of Jamaica's export earnings |
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Jamaica's decades of debt*