Ex-EPOC member Wignal warns sharper inflation could squeeze Jamaican household budgets

A former senior member of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee, Donovan Wignal, has cautioned that many families will feel their purchasing power shrink as price pressures linked to Hurricane Melissa and continued conflict in the Middle East intensify. Consumer prices climbed 4.3 per cent in the twelve months to March, and the Bank of Jamaica expects the annual rate to reach about 7.5 per cent before the current year closes.

Wignal noted that when pump prices rise, ad valorem charges on fuel yield more revenue than officials had budgeted, but those proceeds will not be used to hold down the cost of essential groceries. He said the administration is more likely to apply the additional cash toward lowering how much it must borrow to close the budget gap, leaving shoppers to scale back what they buy as goods and services become dearer.