Common Dreams writes that poverty- and debt- stricken Jamaica faces austerity plans more severe even than Greece’s, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. According to the report, Jamaica still owes the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank over $650 million through 2018. [Many thanks to Michael O’Neal for bringing this item to our attention.]

Thanks to policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund and embraced by the domestic government, the Caribbean nation of Jamaica—saddled with poverty and international debt—has the most severe austerity budget on the planet, a new report from the U.S.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research reveals.

Entitled Partners in Austerity: Jamaica, the United States and the International Monetary Fund, the paper was released just days before U.S. President Barack Obama is slated to make a much-vaunted visit to the country. “When President Obama travels to Jamaica this week, he will be going…