Government to Provide More Than $3Billion For Social Support Programmes 

• The government of Jamaica has announced it will be spending an additional $2.7Bn to provide targeted support to Jamaicans who are most adversely affected by the high cost of living. This totals $3.8Bn in social intervention expenditure, of which $1.1Bn is already accounted for in the 2022/2023 Budget. 
• The support will go towards independence clean up, trucking of water to areas experiencing water challenges, support for PATH beneficiaries, pensioners, back-to-school one-off grants, welfare and economic enablement activities and Poor Relief through Ministry of Local Government & Rural Development. 
• The incremental $2.7Bn expenditure will initially be funded by advances from existing budgeted resources. These advances will be cleared following regularization of the expenditure in the First Supplementary Estimates 2022/23. 
• However, if revenues do not outperform expectations ($770.93Bn), the additional social expenditure could negatively impact the government’s ability to achieve its fiscal surplus of 0.3% of GDP for the 2022/23 fiscal year.

(Sources: JIS News & Ministry of Finance and the Public Service)