"There is no significant change in the fundamentals now, as distinct from a month ago, two months ago, three months ago," the prime minister told Parliament Tuesday.

Ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) on Monday reacted sharply to the sacking of Latibeaudiere by downgrading Jamaica to CCC with a negative outlook.

Far-off assessment

However, Golding, like finance minister Audley Shaw, said S&P's was far off in its assessment.

"When they heard that the governor of the bank had left and that it had to do with policy issues, they proceeded to interpret what those policy issues were and then said to the market 'watch out'," Golding told Parliament.

He added: "The S&P rating cannot be ignored because it can influence the price of our bonds, but it must be borne in mind that rating agencies have proven to be misinformed and, in turn, misinform."

Golding said his Government parted company with the central bank governor because the country could not afford him. He said that it would have cost Jamaica $38 million to pay Latibeaudiere this year.

Purely contractual

Meanwhile, Golding has ad-mitted that his administration had difficulty with some of Latibeaudiere's monetary policies but stressed that the reason for his dismissal was purely contractual.

"I believe that there have been policy differences from time to time. The minister of finance was never convinced that the significant and sudden upward movement in interest rate was the only recourse that the bank had," Golding said. "He has discussed that with the governor and it has been discussed in meetings with me. There were problems."

He added: "Inevitably, there is always going to be friction between a central bank and a ministry of finance. Their mandate and their functions are completely different. What we have to do is to try and make sure that there is sufficient harmonisation in the critical areas where they need to be."