LatinNews Daily - 06 November 2025

*Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said that the damage left by Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall as a category 5 storm in Jamaica last week before hitting other Caribbean nations, could result in losses of US$6bn-US$7bn, about 28%-32% of the country’s GDP on preliminary estimates. He said Jamaica had never had “a disaster of this magnitude”. Describing the estimate as “conservative”, Holness said that in another few weeks, the government would have “the real figure”. He said the sectors most affected were agriculture, tourism, and small and medium-size enterprises and that short-term economic output could decline by 8-13%. On 3 November Jamaica’s minister of education, skills, youth, and information, Dana Morris Dixon, put the official death toll in Jamaica at 32 although said that another eight unconfirmed deaths were under investigation. On 31 October the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which helps limit the financial impact of natural hazard events on Caribbean and Central American governments by providing short-term liquidity when required, announced it would make a record US$70.8m payout to Jamaica. This marks the CCRIF’s fourth payout to Jamaica, following a US$26.6m payout in 2024 following Hurricane Beryl, and a payout in 2020 after Tropical Cyclones Zeta and Eta, bringing the country’s total value of payouts from CCRIF to US$100.9m. Jamaica has received international assistance, including US$12m from the US, and part of €5m (US$6m) from the European Union also earmarked for Cuba and Haiti which were particularly badly affected as well.

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