WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund said it was closely monitoring developments in Jamaica and Haiti on Thursday following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, adding that Jamaica had buffers to finance immediate disaster-related needs.
IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozack told reporters that the IMF was standing by to assist both countries, which were the hardest hit by the storm, but Jamaica had not expressed interest in financial support from the global lender.
“Our preliminary assessment, based on our discussions with the authorities, and our deep knowledge of Jamaica, is that Jamaica has buffers to finance the immediate disaster-related spending needs,” she said.
Jamaica has a strong fiscal and external position, a sound policy framework and multi-layered financing that included both domestic and external instruments, which helped the country build buffers to prepare for a storm like Melissa, she said.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness last week said Melissa, the strongest-ever storm to hit the country’s shores, caused damage to homes and key infrastructure roughly equivalent to 28% to 32% of last year’s gross domestic product. The storm killed 75 people, including 43 in Haiti and 32 in Jamaica.
Holness said the $6 billion to $7 billion estimate was conservative, based on damages assessed so far, and short-term economic output could decline by as much as 8% to 13%.
Moody’s RMS Event Response estimates private market insured losses from Hurricane Melissa to total between $3 billion and $5 billion, with a best estimate of $3.5 billion, mainly driven by wind damage in Jamaica, the company said on Thursday.
Economic losses in Jamaica could exceed the island’s 2024 GDP of approximately $20 billion, reflecting not only property damage but also business interruption across residential, commercial, industrial and automobile sectors, it said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by Diane Craft and Alex Richardson)
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