'Jamaica will pull through,' says EPOC co-chair following flood rains

Keith Duncan, Co-chair of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), has said despite the extensive damage caused by the recent rains, Jamaica will pull through.  

Dennis Chung, Executive Director of the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ), has placed the cost of the damage at about $2 billion.
    
But Mr. Duncan believes the country will not face a prolonged setback.

"Jamaica has faced these challenges before; we have seen floods, we have seen natural disasters. This will definitely have some short term impact on the economy and we'll see some kind of blow to our growth targets," he admitted.
 
But, optimistically, he declared: "It's going to cost money that will have to be reallocated from some other purpose and it is where we are (but) we will move on as a country. At the end of the day, we have to meet our budgetary targets."  

Cabinet on Monday discussed a preliminary estimate of the damage from the National Works Agency (NWA).