For decades, Jamaica's economy has been sluggish. Today, the country faces even deeper fiscal uncertainty, with negative growth in 2008 and projected for 2009 and the global financial crisis seeming certain to impose further restrictions. Already, the economy's most lucrative sectors - tourism earnings, bauxite and remittances from abroad - are in decline or have ground to a halt.

In all, the economy faces serious long-term problems: decreased public revenues, high public wages, increased foreign competition, exchange rate instability, large-scale unemployment and underemployment, and weak access to international financial markets. The debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 128 per cent, meaning that Jamaica owes almost one-third more each year than it produces.