Ja: 3% wage freeze cap

The Government and trade unions have agreed to a three per cent cap on the public sector pay bill for new salary contracts as part of a wage-freeze-for-jobs pact which Prime Minister P J Patterson yesterday described as "a national imperative".

At the same time, the administration has undertaken to pursue policies which will, over the next two fiscal years, contain inflation to single digit, ensure economic growth of up to three per cent per annum and produce a balanced budget by the 2005/2006 fiscal year.

If the Jamaican government can't contain inflation, then pity the working man. We've been down that road before, though, and don't expect that inflation will remain stagnant.