THE Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) reckons that the discipline of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has helped Jamaica to maintain a fairly stable economy despite a 0.3 per cent decline in the country’s growth.

PSOJ president William Mahfood was speaking at the launch of the case studies and documentary of the Inter-American Development Bank/Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) financed institutional strengthening of the NCB expansion of the Small Business Financing project at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday.

“Jamaica over the past year and half has actually had a fairly stable economy, and a lot of that has really to do with the sort of positive discipline that the IMF has helped to bring on this fiscal management,” Mahfood stated.

“I think it’s very important to put into context an economy like Greece which has had similar issues and programmes as Jamaica. They have had a 20 per cent contraction in their economy, while Jamaica over the past year and a half has actually had a fairly stable economy,” he added.

According to PIOJ statistics, the economy went into a recession last December quarter following its second consecutive decline for 2014.

The PIOJ blamed the country’s performance on an estimated decline of 3.7 per cent in the goods-producing industry due to the impact of drought conditions on agricultural production which prevailed from the previous quarter. The electricity and water supply industries also declined 2.7 per cent.

However, the Institute expects to see a recovery of up to 1.5 per cent over the January to March 2015 period.

“So I think we are seeing a very positive turn. We have had a lot of discussion publicly and privately around growth, and one of the things that I think we need to keep reminding ourselves is that we have gone through 22 months and have managed to pass the IMF tests,” Mahfood stated.

Earlier this week, news emerged that the country has also been successful in its seventh IMF review. He added that a lot of questions have been raised about why the country is not seeing more investment from the private sector.

“We also have to remember that the private sector typically doesn’t jump in head first after a very long period of stagnation. It takes time for people’s whole attitude to change, and we have had a long period of difficulties doing business in Jamaica,” Mahfood said

The Small Business Financing project which is supported by the MIF, PSOJ and NCB, has attracted US$1.02 million ($116 million) aimed at significantly increasing lending and financial services to small enterprises. The project consisted of the development and deployment of a credit scoring system, capacity building of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) including family businesses, technical assistance for selected SME clients and communication and knowledge management.

Also present at the function was the Chairman of NCB, Michael Lee Chin, who cried shame on the nation for its dysfunctionality in the agricultural sector.

“Over the years these productions have gone down by 70 per cent and we can increase it through assistance. We need to find more of those small projects and small businesses that will have the impact on growth agenda that everybody so desperately needs,” Mahfood said.