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Is Jamaica A Poor Country?

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Is Jamaica A Poor Country? | City Of KingstonIs Jamaica A Poor Country? | City Of Kingston

by Venesha Johnson | Associate Writer

Jamaica is rich in many things, beauty, culture, warm people, beaches and so many other things, unfortunately, monetarily the country is not doing so great.

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What defines a country as poor? The phrases "rich" and "poor" are frequently employed in a comparative sense in everyday speech: A "poor" individual has less money, possessions, commodities, or services than a "rich" one. This same meaning is applied to countries.

Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is a common metric used by economists to assess the overall economic health of a nation.

GDP measures the total market value of all finished products and services produced in an economy during a certain year, expressed in dollars. A nation's GDP can be compared to its annual income.

Therefore, dividing a country's GDP by its population yields an increase in the average annual revenue per person (per capita) that country's economy generates.

In other words, GDP per capita serves as an indicator of a country's level of living. GDP per capita measures income as if it were distributed equally among the population because it is just GDP divided by the population.

In practice, the earnings of individuals within a nation might vary greatly. Therefore, even in a nation with a low GDP, some people will have better financial circumstances than others.

How Poor Is Jamaica?

Jamaica, the largest and most populous English-speaking nation in the Caribbean, is also one of the poorest nations in North America, despite being categorized by the World Bank as an upper-middle-income nation.

On a scale of the percentage of the population living below the poverty line, Jamaica is ranked 119th out of 164 nations. According to estimates based on GDP per capita growth, the number of Jamaicans living below the official poverty line fell from 19.3% in 2017 to 19.5 per cent in 2019.

Jamaica's GDP increased by 4.6% in 2021 compared to the previous year. This rate is 146 tenths of 1% greater than the 2020 estimate of -10%.

Jamaica ranked 139 out of 196 nations in our list of GDP with a figure of $13,638 million in 2021. In comparison to 2020, Jamaica's GDP decreased by $329 million in absolute terms.

Jamaica's GDP per capita in 2021 was $4,587, down $130 from the $4,717 it had in 2020. It is fascinating to look back a few years and contrast these numbers with those from 2011, when Jamaica's GDP per capita was $5,333, to see how the GDP per capita has changed over time.

Why Is Jamaica A Poor Country?

The responses to this question include things like high crime rates, unemployment, inflation and import costs.

Gang involvement and drug trafficking are the two main causes of crime in Jamaica. This often leads to rival gang feuds, the contributing factor to Jamaica's high crime rate.

Additionally, unemployment is also a factor. According to the Statistics Institute of Jamaica, the unemployment rate has slightly decreased, from 12.2% in April 2017 to 12.9% in October 2016.

The lowest unemployment rate in Jamaican history was reported by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) to be 6.2% in January 2022 compared to 8.8% in the same quarter of 2021. The crime rate is on a constant rise as Jamaica has already reported a 6.5% increase in crime for 2022 when compared to the same time in 2021.

Jamaica's high inflation rate, which averaged 9.54% between 2002 and 2017, is another factor contributing to the country's poverty. Jamaica's inflation rate dropped to 4.4% as of July 2017. The 2021 inflation rate for Jamaica was 5.86%, up 0.64% over the previous year.

The 2020 inflation rate for Jamaica was 5.23%, up 1.32% from the previous year. The inflation rate in Jamaica for 2019 was 3.91%, up 0.1% from 2018.

It is not uncommon for Jamaica to spend half of its income on imported goods for essentials. The nation mostly depends on products like food, fuel, and clothing. Due to its heavy reliance on imported commodities, it has a growing deficit, which threatens the health of its economy and keeps most people in poverty.

There is still a lot to work on to get Jamaica in a better financial position but I have high hopes that we will get there.

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References & Sources For Is Jamaica A Poor Country?

  1. Why is Jamaica Poor? - The Borgen Project,https://borgenproject.org/why-is-jamaica-poor-2/
  2. Why Are Some Countries, Rich and Others Poor? | St. Louis Fed, https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/page1-econ/2017/09/01/why-are-some-countries-rich-and-others-poor/#:~:text=In%20common%20language%2C%20the%20terms,well%2Dbeing%20within%20a%20country.
  3. Poorest Countries in North America 2022, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/poorest-countries-in-north-america
  4. Jamaica GDP - Gross Domestic Product 2021 | countryeconomy.com, https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/jamaica#:~:text=Jamaica%3A%20GDP%20increases%204.6%25&text=This%20rate%20is%20146%20%2Dtenths,196%20countries%20that%20we%20publish.
  5. Jamaica Inflation Rate 1960-2022 | MacroTrends, https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/JAM/jamaica/inflation-rate-cpi#:~:text=Jamaica%20inflation%20rate%20for%202021,a%200.17%25%20increase%20from%202018
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