(CMR) Richard Byles, the Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, has come under criticism from employees in Jamaica after stating that massive increases in salary can affect inflation.
However, the BOJ head said his role was not to advise businesses how much salary increase to grant, but said, “wage increases in the economy beyond inflation run the risk of stoking inflation even more.”
“That’s just a statement that I need to make as part of my job of managing inflation. Nothing more. I don’t intend to advise any group or anyone in respect of how much beyond what I am saying,” he added.
Speaking in an interview with Radio Jamaica, Byles explained that “if you are trying to recover from inflation and you are giving an increase to that point, that is fine. If you are going beyond that and you have an increase in productivity, that is also fine. Neither of those have an impact on inflation. But if you are going to give a very large increase, which I assume to be more than what inflation has been, then we are going to have an impact on inflation by so doing. And that is the concern of the Bank of Jamaica.”
General Secretary of the National Workers Union (NWU), Granville Valentine, said Byles’ comments were unfortunate, given that trade unions are trying to negotiate liveable wages for employees.
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