IMF Downgrades Economic Outlook for Jamaica  

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its growth outlook for Jamaica. In its latest economic outlook released Tuesday morning, the IMF predicted that the local economy is set to grow by 2% by the end of 2023 down from 2.2% previously.
• The IMF also projected slower growth for 2024 at 1.8%, a 0.2% downward revision.
• The forecast for 2028 remains at 1.6%. The IMF's forecast comes days after the World Bank upgraded its outlook for Jamaica, with expected growth for this year at 2.3%. 
• Meanwhile, for the Latin America and Caribbean Region, the IMF upgraded its GDP outlook to 2.3% growth which is higher than the projection for the year made in April of 1.6%.
• The IMF says the region's GDP will also grow by 2.3% next year, reflecting a 0.1% improvement in the outlook.
• The deceleration comes at a time when the world has yet to fully mend from a devastating but short-lived COVID-19 recession in 2020 and now could see fallout from the Middle East conflict — particularly to oil prices.

(Source: IMF)