Bank of Jamaica signaling tighter Monetary Policy

Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) announces its decision to hold the policy interest rate unchanged at 0.50 percent per annum. The Bank also decided to consider commencing a tightening of monetary policy at the next meeting of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (the MPC Committee) in September and to immediately implement other measures aimed at moderating inflation expectations, including the containment of Jamaican dollar liquidity expansion.
The BOJ went on to state, “While the Bank does not target any specific level of the exchange rate, Bank of Jamaica will also seek to ensure that movements in the exchange rate do not threaten the inflation target.”
Monetary policy decisions taken by Bank of Jamaica are aimed at ensuring that the annual increase in the prices of consumer goods and services (i.e. inflation) remains within the Bank’s inflation target of 4 percent to 6 percent.
These decisions were made by a unanimous vote by the MPC. The decisions were based on the MPC’s assessment that, while inflation is likely to breach the upper bound of the Bank’s target range over the next year, starting the September 2021 quarter, inflation will gradually decelerate thereafter as the transitory effects of the pandemic fade. “Conditional on the gradual tightening of monetary accommodation, inflation is projected to remain at 5 percent over the medium term, ” the BOJ stated.