In Parliament today: finance minister to table third revised budget as Jamaica confronts hurricane fallout

Jamaica Gleaner | 2025-12-02 | Original Article

Finance Minister Fayval Williams will this afternoon table Jamaica's third revised budget for the ongoing 2025-2026 financial year, as the country continues to grapple with the severe economic fallout caused by Hurricane Melissa.

 

The revised spending plan comes one day after the announcement of a US$6.7-billion (just over J$1 trillion) support package assembled by five major international financial institutions to help drive Jamaica’s recovery and reconstruction over the next three years.

 

The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank Group said the coordinated package was prepared following a request from Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness.

 

Melissa, the strongest hurricane to strike Jamaica, caused an estimated US$8.8 billion (J$1.42 trillion) in physical damage. That's equivalent to 41 percent of the country’s 2024 GDP, making it the costliest hurricane in the nation’s recorded history. It claimed at least 45 lives devastated. The government has also announced plans to establish a National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority to lead the rebuilding effort.

 

Holness signalled last week that Williams would address the nation’s fiscal position in the House of Representatives this week. He also told the Opposition that questions its members had about the financing of the recovery would be addressed.

 

The House is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m.

 

Also scheduled for tabling is an amendment to Jamaica’s fiscal rules, as signalled by Holness in a November 4 statement to Parliament.

 

At that time, he said the government would activate the provisions under Section 48C of the Financial Administration and Audit Act, allowing temporary suspension of the fiscal rules in circumstances of national emergency or extraordinary economic disruption.

 

Holness had warned that Jamaica should expect a short- to medium-term rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio, as resources are channelled into reconstruction while maintaining macroeconomic stability.

 

The Planning Institute of Jamaica has projected the Jamaican economy to contract by 11 to 13 per cent in the December 2025 quarter, the sharpest decline since the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

“It is unprecedented and far-reaching. It is expected to result in increased unemployment and weakening demand,” said Director General Dr Wayne Henry during his quarterly briefing last week Tuesday.

 

Today’s sitting will also include a ministerial statement from Matthew Samuda, Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change, and the closing of debate on the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) (Amendment) Act, 2025, which was opened on October 14.

 

The legislation seeks to introduce automatic expungement for certain old, non-custodial convictions.

 

According to Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Delroy Chuck, offences with non-custodial sentences imposed and satisfied before January 1, 2005, where the individual has not been convicted of another offence, would automatically be cleared. More than 100,000 Jamaicans could be eligible.

 

Opposition spokesperson on justice Zulieka Jess has welcomed the direction of the bill but has urged the government to go further.

 

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