Interest rate fell on Bank of Jamaica’s latest certificate of deposit offer to just 9.7 percent at an auction of $11 billion on Wednesday this week from over 10.02 percent at last week’s Wednesday regular offering, at $37 billion.
The auction attracted $33 billion from 361 applicants, with just 90 being successful. The highest bid clearing the auction was 9.98 percent. Following, the regular auction of last week, the Central Bank placed an unscheduled offer of $18 billion on the market on Thursday, attracting 245 bids for $28.46 billion, resulting in an average rate of 9.21 percent, with 140 bids being successful, with the highest successful rate being 9.74 percent.
At the close of this week’s auction, $129.5 billion in 30 days CD’s will be outstanding. This seems to be a continuation of the recent decline in CD rates that could be heralding a period of lower interest rates, following two years with rates being at an elevated level for the since second half of 2022.
Jamaica has had four straight months of high levels of deflation that seem set to continue into May and probably beyond and would demand a lowering of interest rates sooner rather than later.
BOJ cd rate falls below 10%
June 13, 2024 by
