KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – The government of Jamaica plans to tap $5 billion from its disaster risk financing resources to address the immediate relief and recovery efforts related to hurricane Beryl. Minister of finance and the public service, Dr Nigel Clarke, made the disclosure during a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, July 23.
“We plan to disburse $1.3 billion to the ministry of economic growth and job creation to finance programmes announced last week by the prime minister, and we plan to disburse $1 billion to the ministry of labour and social security,” Dr Clarke added. “Any expenditure beyond this amount that falls into this fiscal year will be financed from the proceeds of donations and the donations which have been pledged thus far.”
The minister informed that all expenditures undertaken in relation to hurricane Beryl will be represented in the First Supplementary Estimates to be tabled later this year.
Dr Clarke said he has been informed by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) that Jamaica’s tropical cyclone and excess rainfall policies have been triggered with payout amounts of US$16.3 million (J$2.5 billion) and US$10.3 million (J$1.6 billion), respectively. The path and intensity of hurricane Beryl did not trigger Jamaica’s catastrophe bond.
“As such, the disaster risk financing resources available to the government, due to the pre-financing of disaster risk, totals approximately $10.9 billion, made up of $5.3 billion in the contingencies, $4.1 billion from CCRIF, which is to come; $1 billion, which we have budgeted for the National Natural Disaster Risk Fund; and National Disaster Fund of $500 million. It could always be more, but we have never been in this position before to have a hurricane hit us and to have resources on hand to meet the emergency relief expenditure. We must bear in mind that as intense as hurricane Beryl was, and with as much damage as it has caused, there have been few hurricanes that have been meteorologically more intense and far more damaging to Jamaica, including hurricanes Ivan (2004) and Dean (2007),” Dr Clarke noted.
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