Digicel Foundation recently treated nearly 250 hearing-impaired students to a viewing of the acclaimed musical, Mary Poppins, at the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Performing Arts in St Andrew.

“The point of it is to bring them together so that they can experience theatre, something outside their normal realm. This showing is our way of bringing them out to experience something new, widening the scope and just allowing them to get involved in the arts,” Digicel Foundation CEO Charmaine Daniels told Loop News during last Sunday’s viewing.

The participating students were from five schools for the deaf across the island – two of the institutions having benefited from the installation of literacy labs (used to improve the students’ ability to communicate with individuals who can hear) courtesy of the Digicel Foundation.

A production of the Jamaica Music Theatre Company, Mary Poppins features two mischievous children being attended to by a supernatural nanny, who eventually transforms their lives and that of their family.

There were continuous cheers throughout by the students in the audience, who were aided by interpreter Antoinette Aiken’s narration of the dialogue.

“We can’t put a dollar value on the experience because it is one that they can never forget,” Daniels said.

“There are very few shows that specifically cater to their needs and so it’s an opportunity that they would normally not have,” the Digicel Foundation CEO continued.

“Part of what the foundation tries to do is raise the awareness and we are hoping that by doing this, there will be other partners that will come on board and try to offer more events and more performances for the special needs community,” she said.

Special needs is one of three core pillars for Digicel Foundation, with the others being community development and education; according to Daniels, special needs ties all three pillars together.

 

See more photos in the slider below.

 

Based on the preliminary performance results to date through end-November 2019, the GOJ is on track to meet the Quantitative Performance Targets for the GOJ ERP for end-December 2019, with the exception of the inflation target.

Selected Quantitative Performance Targets and Policy Actions Status Updates

TARGETS	STATUS	COMMENTS
FISCAL INDICATORS
Tax Revenues		Continues to exceed target
Primary Balance/Surplus		Continues to exceed target
Central Government Spending on Social Programmes		On track
MONETARY INDICATORS
Non-Borrowed Reserves		Continues to exceed target
Inflation		6.2% outside of BOJ’s target range of 4-6%. Temporary jump, projected to fall back within the target range
JAMAICA’S PRIORITY ACTIONS
Priority GOJ Actions (Oct-Dec 2019)		3 Met Target 4 Delayed but in Progress
Economic Reform Programme  (ERP)		GOJ ERP on Track

EPOC’s OUTLOOK

Economic Growth

The World Economic Outlook (WEO) is projecting global growth to rise from an estimated 2.9% in 2019 to 3.3% in 2020 while growth in the Latin American and Caribbean region is expected to rebound to 1.6% in 2020. The Planning Institute of Jamaica projects Jamaica’s real GDP growth for the fiscal year 2019/20 to fall within the range of 0.0%–1.0%.

EPOC concurs with the view of the PIOJ that growth will be low for the remainder of the fiscal year 2019/20. However, EPOC expects that going forward through 2020-2022, as the impact of the fallout from mining is behind us, growth should begin to get back to the 2% growth levels.

Monetary Performance

While point-to-point inflation of 6.2% as at December 2019 was outside of the BOJ target range, it is expected to be temporary and the BOJ will maintain its accommodative monetary stance. The most recent survey of business expectations by BOJ expects inflation for the next 12 months ending November 2020 to be 5.0 percent owing largely to inflationary trends and exchange rate.

Credit Growth

This accommodative stance continues to spur Credit growth from the Deposit taking Institutions as credit to businesses and households increased by 15.5% between September 2018 to September 2019.

 International Reserves

As at December 31, Jamaica’s net international reserves are healthy at US$3.16B, non-borrowed reserves at US$2.821B exceed the target of US$2.343B. Gross international reserves continue to exceed programme targets and exceed the international adequacy benchmark.

Fiscal Performance

The fiscal performance continues to be strong as tax revenues as December 31 came in at J$414.7B continue to outperform budget and the first supplementary budget targets of J$407.1B which led to a second supplementary budget being tabled in parliament for Fiscal year 2019/20.

Foreign Exchange Market

There continues to be market apprehension and a heightened uncertainty around the volatility of the exchange rate, the BOJ continues to consult with the market in an effort to reduce volatility and smooth out demand and supply imbalances. The BOJ recently introduced a FX Swap Arrangement and is encouraging authorized dealers and cambios to further deepen the market through the introduction of forward contracts while looking to implement the electronic trading platform in early 2020 which will provide greater transparency and price discovery for market players.

EPOC acknowledges BOJ’s efforts to deepen the FX market and notes the ongoing consultations with the Jamaica Bankers Association and other key stakeholders in the market.

EPOC is hopeful that as the reforms in the FX market take hold, volatility levels and the swings in the currency could be reduced. However, Jamaica is only a very small player in the global FX market and will always be exposed to and not insulated from volatility and movements in the international FX market.

 EPOC Post IMF

Following the completion of the three-year Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement (PSBA) with the IMF as at November 2019, EPOC continues to serve under a new Memorandum of Understanding. Under this agreement, EPOCs extended period of service will be aligned with the establishment of the Fiscal Council and completion of activities related to the Central Bank achieving Independent status.