Moody’s has upgraded Jamaica’s credit rating to B3 from Caa2 and changed the Caribbean sovereign’s outlook to stable from positive.

The rating agency said it improved the rating after Jamaica showed a “strong commitment” to reforms to reduce its debt burden and because the country had applied a “significant and sustained” fiscal consolidation.
Jamaica’s improved current account balance and higher cash reserves also contributed to the two-notch upgrade, Moody’s said.
Moody’s added that Jamaica’s debt burden will likely come down over the next two-to-three years when balanced against the country’s “high susceptibility” to external shocks, particularly natural disasters.
Speaking at LatinFinance’s 2nd Caribbean Investment and Finance Forum in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Finance Minister Audley Shaw said the economy was on pace to grow 2% in the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
Jamaica’s GDP expanded 2.3% during the July to September quarter, its fastest pace since 2007. Prime Minister Andrew Holness has set a goal of boosting Jamaica’s growth rate to 5% within four years. 
The economy last grew at those rates in the 1980s. In 2016, Jamaica’s GDP expanded by 1.5%, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Jamaica has one of the world’s highest debt loads but it has cut debt to 120% of GDP from 145% four years ago. The government has set a goal to get it down to 96% by 2020, Shaw said.