MILLIONS of pounds of tax-payers’ money is to be pumped into the Island economy to stimulate the building, retail and finance industries, the Treasury Minister was expected to announce today.
In the clearest signal yet that Jersey will not avoid the harsh realities of the global credit crunch, Senator Philip Ozouf was due to announce the emergency fiscal measures in the States today. He was expected to tell Members that it is time to dip into the reserves Jersey has built up in healthier economic conditions.
News that the ‘rainy day’ which Islanders have long feared may finally have arrived comes after repeated, and perhaps naïvely optimistic, government statements that Jersey was well placed to weather the storm better than most jurisdictions.
Cash from the stabilisation fund is expected to be used to stimulate the faltering economy. The fund was established by the previous Council of Ministers as a safety net to complement the Strategic Reserve, which is more commonly referred to as the rainy day fund, if Jersey fell on hard times.
