Jersey's government has to 'act now' to protect the economy, says expert

A Jersey economist has warned the government needs to act now and not wait until the autumn to roll out targeted projects and fiscal stimulus to protect the economy.Dr Michael Oliver has been an economic policy adviser to the government in the past. He is also a finance lecturer at the Open University.He says that whilst Jersey is restricted in that it cannot change monetary policy, like the Bank of England, it can operate on fiscal policy. The advice of the fiscal policy panel, which advises the government is to 'spend now' he says, but so far he is not seeing evidence of this being acted upon with any urgency.

Dr Oliver wants to see more targeted spending on construction projects in particular. He also wants to see a reduction in GST as well as temporary tax cuts to get people 'spending again.'

He would also like to see the appointment of a business 'tsar', an entrepreneur who could help guide and steer the island's civil servants and 'break down the disconnect' between the civil service and business