Prime Minister Bruce Golding has again made it clear that Jamaica would be an unwilling bride in any resumption of its marriage with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"I'm not anxious to go to the IMF, not anxious ... We are approaching it reluctantly and we hope we don't have to," Golding told journalists at the weekly post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday.

He said his administration's reluctance to resume a borrowing relationship with the IMF was not just linked to condi-tionalities which it might impose.

Conditionalities less harsh

"We are assured that the conditionalities are nowhere as harsh as they used to be," Golding said.

But he added that the Government was in no hurry to find out what conditions would be attached to any IMF assistance.

"I'm approaching it reluctantly, but if the circumstances require that we do it, we would have to. So, it is not that I'm being coy. It is not that we are negotiating with them, but we don't want to tell the public that," Golding added.

The prime minister noted that a Jamaican team led by Don Wehby recently travelled to the IMF for talks, and a team from that organisation is to visit Jamaica next week for a first-hand look at the situation.

Balance of payment issue

But Golding was clear that this was no indication of a pending return, despite claims by some local financial analysts that it is a matter of "when and not if" Jamaica will be forced to embrace the IMF.

"I will tell the country if we are going back and the reason we might have to go back - there is a balance of payment issue," said Golding.

"Remember that we have lost more than two-thirds of our bauxite earnings and bauxite accounted for 60 per cent of our total earnings. Remittances, as you know, are down, some months we are 10 per cent down, some months we are as much as 17, 18 per cent. I think one bad month we were 25 per cent down compared to the previous year," Golding added.

He said the Government was putting itself in a position where if the country's reserves decline to the point where a confidence crisis emerges it can say to the market that a facility is in place with the IMF that the Government can access.

According to Golding, Jamaica could get just under $1 billion from the IMF under its special drawing rights if the need arises.

Jamaica had a turbulent 20-year relationship with the IMF, which ended with great fanfare in the 1990s at a People's National Party conference, with then Prime Minister PJ Patterson saying, "ta-ta and goodbye" to the fund, which had often attached strict conditionalities to its loans.

External debt upgraded

But the declining global financial conditions have prompted some analysts to urge the Golding administration to return to bed with the old friend.

News that the country might resume borrowing relations with the IMF was one of the factors which caused the United States-based broker, JP Morgan, to upgrade Jamaica's external debt to 'neutral' from 'underweight'.

JP Morgan said the Government's willingness to talk to the IMF was a positive development, given the persistent deterioration in the country's macro fundamentals.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com