Inflation drops again says Statin

February 16, 2015 by

PriceBalloons_KittisakFREEIMAGE280x150pxThe Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) reports that the All Jamaica ‘All Divisions’ Consumer Price Index fell by 0.5 percent in January this year, the third consecutive monthly decline in the inflation rate for Jamaica. The inflation rate was 0.1 percent in October, November was negative 0.5 percent and December negative 0.3 percent. The downward movement in inflation for January was mainly attributable to a fall in the index for the three highest weighted divisions. The index ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ fell by 0.2 percent, followed by the division ‘Housing Water, Electricity,

Gas & other fuels fell 3.4% in january

Gas & other fuels fell 3.4% in january

Gas and Other Fuels’ falling by 3.4 percent and the ‘Transport’ division declining by 1.6 percent. Contributing to these decreases were lower prices for ‘Vegetables and Starchy Foods’, lower rates for water, sewage and electricity, as well as a fall in the international price of crude oil, which impacted the local price for petrol, Statin stated in their release on price movements for January on Monday.
The release went on to state that the divisions that recorded increases in the All Jamaica ‘All Divisions’ index were: ‘Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco’ 0.4 percent, ‘Clothing and Footwear’ 0.9 percent, ‘Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance’ 0.3 percent, ‘Health’ 0.1 percent, ‘Recreation and Culture’ 0.1 percent, ‘and ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ 0.6 percent, while Restaurants and Accommodation Services’ 2.5 percent, ‘Education’, and ‘Communication’ each remained unchanged.

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Agostini’s acquires Facey in Barbados

February 16, 2015 by

FacyAgostini’s Limited, a Trinidad and Tobago listed company said on Friday that it acquired all the shares in Facey Trading a fast moving consumer goods Barbadian company.
Facey Trading is a distribution business operating in Barbados and was owned by Facey Group with headquarters in Jamaica. Paul Scott of Facey Group, confirm the sale to Agostini’s. They approached us with an offer and we decided to sell, we sold the business but kept the property which is leased to the new owners of the business Scott, confirmed in an interview with IC Insider. It would appear that the size and state of the Barbadian economy played a role in the decision to sell. Facey Group continues to operate in Barbados in the IT and telecom phone card sector Scott said.
AhonAgostini’s reported profit of TT$27 million for the first quarter to December 2014 from revenues of TT$408 million compared with profit of $27 million from revenues of $378 million in the 2013 period. For the year to September 2014 revenues came in at $1.36 billion resulting on full year’s profit of $80.5 million. Earnings per share for the quart was 46 cents and $1.36 for the full year. The stock last traded at $17.60. Agostini’s is involved in pharmaceutical, personal care, food and construction product distribution.

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Jamaica’s economy barely delivering jobs

February 14, 2015 by

Image courtesy of koko-tewan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of koko-tewan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Jamaica unemployment rate eased in September, according to Data put out by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Satin) but remained at elevated levels at 14.2 percent compared to 14.9 percent in October 2013. The number of unemployed persons declined by 7,800 (4.0 percent) moving from 194,000 in October 2013 to 186,200 in October 2014.
The slow growth in the numbers on newly employed is a direct result of the low growth performance in the local economy as current government policy drives down demand for many goods and services in the country as government maintains the target of a balance fiscal operation.
Statin said the unemployment rate for males declined from 10.6 percent to 9.9 percent and for females from 20.0 percent to 19.4 percent.
EmploymentChairVacancy280x150“The number of persons in the Labour Force was 1,310,700, an increase of 6,200 (0.5 percent) above the 1,304,500 recorded in September 2013” Statin said.
The number of persons employed according to the latest data for 2014 is 1,124,500 persons, 14,000 (1.3 percent) more than the 1,110,500 recorded in September 2013, the report indicated. The composition continues to show much more male employment than female, with 645,900 males and 478,600.
According to the report the largest increases in the number of employed persons occurred in the groups ‘Wholesale & Retail, Repair of Motor Vehicle & Equipment’ and ‘Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry & Fishing’. The number of persons employed in the group ‘Wholesale & Retail, Repair of Motor Vehicle & Equipment’ increased by 11,700 (5.5 percent) while the group ‘Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry & Fishing’ increased by 7,800 (3.9 percent).

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Carreras fetches $395m for property

February 10, 2015 by

Property that Carreras previously occupied, now sold for $395m

Property that Carreras previously occupied, now sold for $395m

Carreras sold its property at 15 Twickenham Park Estate for $395 million, the company disclosed in a release to the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Monday. The company stated that the decision to relocate it business to Kingston “is consistent with Carreras’ shift from a manufacturing company to a marketing and distribution company, which naturally resulted in the current location, previously a manufacturing facility, being under -utilised and far exceeding our current space requirement. We therefore decided to sell this property at and have entered into an agreement to sell the said property for Three Hundred and Ninety Five Million Dollars. The sale is scheduled to be completed on March 10, 2015.”
Shareholders who have been enjoying a bumper period of high returns on their shares since 2014, should see another pay out from the net proceeds of this sale.

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C&WJ revenues up 27% in Q3

February 10, 2015 by

cable-and-wireless-worldwide280x150“In the Third Quarter we have continued to build momentum through our investment-led Project Marlin and we are continuing to deliver top line growth” Phil Bentley, Chief Executive of CW Communications, commented in a release of the group’s third quarter results today.
“Investments in our mobile networks have improved coverage and reliability and we saw mobile data grow a further 23 percent with traffic carried on our networks increasing by over 35 percent. Fibre investments have focussed on our Caribbean markets and are key to generating growth in the Broadband & TV segments. We continue to work with Governments and Regulators to gain the required approvals for completion of the Columbus acquisition and are on track to close before our fiscal year end” Bentley stated.
The groups CEO went on to say “Mobile revenue (53 percent of Group revenue) was up 4 percent in the Third Quarter driven by growth in LIME and Panama, up 10 percent and 4 percent respectively. LIME growth was driven by continued subscriber additions in Jamaica, 18 percent where investment in our 4G mobile network led to constant currency revenue growth of 27 percent and an NPS gain of 11 points, whilst in Barbados our “Upgrade Barbados” marketing campaign led to 6 percent revenue growth and our market-leading LTE service in Cayman drove revenue growth of 3 percent. Panama mobile growth followed a strong increase in subscribers, primarily within prepaid, as a result of increased promotions leading up to and through the holiday season.”

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Remittances up 5% for 2014

February 8, 2015 by

Remittance inflows into Jamaica, continue to grow at consistent pace for 2014, and is now at the highest levels ever. The latest data from Jamaica’s central bank, Bank of Jamaica revealed that total remittance inflows for October last year, climbed US$9 million or 5.2 percent to US$180 million, compared to the same month of 2013.
Ja Rem 10-14For the month, net remittances were US$160 million, an increase of US$8 million or 5.3 percent relative to the 2013 corresponding period. “These inflows were above the average of US$161.8 million for the previous five corresponding periods,” the BOJ report stated.
For the review period, total remittance inflows amounted to US$1.784 billion, for an increase of US$81 million or 4.8 percent. Net remittances for the calendar year to October were up US$90 million or 6 percent to US$1.59 billion, relative to the corresponding period of 2013. The growth of net inflows seemed tied to greater stability of the exchange rates of the Jamaican dollar and more availability of foreign exchange in the local market, in 2014 compared to 2013.

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The JSE at 19 months’ high

February 6, 2015 by

SCBNK lsign MBFriday’s activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange saw the all Jamaica composite index soaring nearly 2,000 points to hit the highest level since closing at 87,362.77 points, on July 29, 2013. The major contributors to the strong move are, Carreras closing at $42, Scotia Group ending at $21.99, Jamaica Broilers, Jamaica Money Market Brokers and Sagicor Group.
A large part of the gain in the indices is due to Scotia Group jumping $1.97, as broker Scotia Investments, aggressively bought most of the shares to trade in that stock at the higher level. At the close, bids were well below at $20.50, leaving a large gap for the price to fall back. Trading resulted in the prices of 11 stocks rising and only 1 declining as 22 securities changed hands, ending in 3,765,154 units trading, valued at $31,624,763, in all market segments.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index gained 1,782.43 points to 79,120.65, the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 1,992.84 points to close at 87,178.87 and the JSE combined index gained 1722.34 by points to close at 80,967.47.

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GOJ income falls but fiscal on track

February 5, 2015 by

Peter PhillipsThe Jamaican government is on track to achieve their primary surplus target with the December data showing only half a billion positive balance over the budgeted target level, but that is well down on $6.2 billion excess achieved for the period to November.
The primary surplus at the end of December comes out at $66.5 billion and is up from November’s surplus of $54.4 billion. The excess over forecast was achieved although revenues are off by $10 billion, or more than $3 billion worse than the $6.8 billion at the end of November. Tax revenues fell short by $9.7 billion to November as economic measures bite, but non tax revenue was better than forecast by $2 billion and grants were off by $3 billion.
Tax on interest brought in $1.5 billion in revenue over budget and was up by 39 percent, PAYE rose by 4 percent or $2 billion to $49.9 billion. The shortfalls were mostly local GCT down by $5.4 billion or 10.6 percent to $5.5 billion. Corporation tax fell short by $6.6 billion or 30 percent, Special consumption tax dropped $1.7 billion or 19 percent
The wage bill that was on target to November shows $1.76 billion in savings to December, as government spent $121 billion on this item, interest cost is down by $4.5 billion to $95 billion and other cost fell by $671 million. Capital expenditure, underspent by $7.4 billion to November is now $8.3 billion below forecast or 31 percent reduction.
The fiscal deficit targeted at $33.87 billion is down by $5 billion to $28.9 billion thanks to cut in scheduled payments.

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GOJ T-bill rate decline conftinues

January 24, 2015 by

Ministry of Finance Building Kingston, ,Jamaica

Ministry of Finance Building Kingston, Jamaica

Interest rates on government of Jamaica Treasury bills, continue their decent in the latest offering this month. Two offerings at the January 23 auctions and one on January 14, resulted in a further decline in the interest rates on all three instruments offered to the public.
The 182 days note that fell to 7.14 percent at the December auction, the lowest level since June 201, returned a lower rate in the January auction at 6.99 percent.
The pace at which the 182 days treasury rates are falling, have slowed from 0.34 percent dip in November to 0.15 percent at the latest issue. With the latest announcement by Bank of Jamaica on projection for inflation for 2015 being in the range of 3-5 percent there will be lots of room for the treasury rates to decline sharply in the months ahead.
Tbill mvmnt 1-15The latest auction, dated January 14, 2015, for the 28 days instrument, ended with an average rate of 6.29528 percent. The rate fell from the average rate of 6.38 percent at the December auction and from 6.71 percent in November and 6.826 percent in October, as $1.1 billion up from $686 million in December, chased the $400 million on offer.
Investors’ demand for the 91 days Treasury bills, climbed to $706 million, from $531 million in December, but is still well below the $1.042 billion that chased the November auction offering. Demand for the longer-term 182 days instrument, was down to $717 million from $925 million for the December auction. The amounts available were $400 million for each for the Treasury bills on offer.
The Treasury bill for the 91 days period, Friday, January 23 to mature on Friday, April 24, attracted an average yield of 6.8817 percent down from 6.956 percent in December. November’s rate was 7.052 percent, 7.336 percent in October and 7.46952 percent, at the September auction. At the August auction the average rate out turn was 7.46767 percent. The yield for July was an average of 7.63643 percent, for the June issue 7.65893 percent and 8.2 percent in May, for the Treasury bill of same duration.
The offer of 182 days duration, dated December 2014, maturing on June 19, 2015, resulted in an average interest rate yield of 7.14 percent, down from 7.387 percent at the November’s auction. At the October auction the average rate declined to 7.73187 percent from 7.99887 percent, at the September auction, 8.11578 percent, in August, 8.21982 percent at the July’s auction and 8.36502 percent for the June issue, of the same duration. At the May auction, the rate came out at 8.932 percent.

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Inflation drops in December

January 19, 2015 by

Price fallThe rate of inflation in Jamaica, fell in December last, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) reported today. Statin reported that the rate for the last month of the year, registered a fall of 0.3 percent over November. In November, the rate declined by 0.5 percent.
The rate for the full year and the point-to-point inflation, each ended at 6.4 percent and compares with 6.4 percent for 2013 but is above the 6 percent achieved in 2011. The increase for 2014 is the second lowest on record, for the past seven years dating back to 2008.
The price movement in December was largely attributable to the “downward movement recorded in the index for the division ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’, ‘Housing Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ and ‘Transport’. The index for the division ‘Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ declined by 0.6 percent, due mainly to lower prices for vegetables. Lower rates for water and sewage in addition to a reduction in the cost of electricity were key factors influencing the division ’Housing, Water, Electricity, gas and Other Fuels’, which moved down by 1.2 percent. A decrease of 0.4 percent was recorded for the division ‘’Transportation as a result of global reduction in oil prices” Statin said.
On the other hand price increases occurred in Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Clothing and Footwear, Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance, Health, Recreation and Culture and Miscellaneous Goods and Services.

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