KINGSTON - Finance Minister Audley Shaw is again seeking to reassure the country and the international community that the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be concluded shortly.

Shaw was responding to the latest downgrade of Jamaica by international ratings agency, Moody's.

In its latest report, Moody's has downgraded Jamaica's local and foreign currency government bond ratings to Caa1 from B2, citing the delay in concluding the IMF negotiations among its concerns.

Shaw told The Gleaner/ Power 106 News last night that the government was confident about the progress of the IMF talks and would shortly be in a position to make an announcement.

On Sunday the prime minister indicated that the discussions would be wrapped up by next month, after two previous deadlines were not met.

However, Shaw stayed clear of committing to a specific date for completion of the negotiations.

Shaw also described the latest rating by Moody's as somewhat hasty, a response similar to that for the Standard & Poor's triple C rating earlier this month.

Moody's has said an IMF agreement was crucial to maintain confidence, meet this year's government's funding needs and provide foreign currency inflows to sustain the external position.

The agency also said even though an IMF programme would improve the country's fiscal position, the size of the public debt was such that Jamaica was unlikely to restore debt sustainability in the medium-term without meaningful debt restructuring.

Moody's last rating was in March when the government's B1 foreign-currency and Ba2 local-currency bond ratings were downgraded to B2. (Jamaica Gleaner)