Remittance inflows into Jamaica amount to US$291 million for August 2025, representing a decline of 2.8 percent or US$8.5 million in comparison to August 2024, when total inflows were US$300 million, data released by the Bank of Jamaica show.
For the eight months ending August 2025, total remittance inflows to Jamaica amount to US$2.302 billion, an increase of 2.8 percent compared to inflows for January to August last year of US$2.239 billion. The total inflows for this year are marginally ahead of the record haul of 2021, with US$2.3 billion in inflows up to August 2021.
Data released by the country’s security force up to the 8th of November, shows the number of murders falling from 979 to the 8th of November last year, to 571 this year, a drop of 408 murders, up to the 8th of November, at a rate of just over an average of 1.75 murders per day.
In October, this year just 263,000 passengers passed through Sangster International Airport, a sharp fall from 319,200 last year. Passenger traffic dropped to 121.400 at the Norman Manley Airport compared with 139,600 in 2024.
Aside from the record take for 2021, the year-to-date inflows exceed all previous years’ figures. Gross inflows for July 2025 dropped by US$21 million compared with July 2021. For the seven months to July this year, inflows are down US$17 million from the 2021 seven-month period. To exceed the record 2021 intake of US$3.497 billion, it will require growth of just under 5 percent for the last 5 months of this year. Regardless, the 2025 numbers appear on track to at least come close to the record haul in 2021 to be either the best year or the second-best.
At the same time, traffic passing through Kingston Norman Manley slipped marginally from 137,800 in September last year to 137,400.
Inflows in June this year increased by US$8 million to US$286.5 million, or 2.9 percent compared to US$278.3 million in June 2024.
According to the airport operators, 447,300 passengers were processed by Sangster International Airport in August this year, up from 424,800 in August last year. The gains in the last 8 months virtually wipes out the losses in the early months of the year, with 3.5615 million passengers, a 1.4 percent fall, compared to the 3.6105 million for the similar period in 2024.
According to Statin, the main contributor to the increase was a 0.9 percent rise in the index for the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages division, with the Food group rising by 0.9 percent, while the index for the Non-Alcoholic Beverages group increased by 0.4 percent.
For the five months to May 2025, remittance inflows amount to US$1.422 billion, up 3.6 percent over the first five months of last year, with total inflows of $1.373 billion.
Traffic passing through Montego Bay moved from 443,400 last year in July to 510,600, resulting in the year to date performance slipping just 2.2 percent to 3.114 million, from 3.186 million last year. The improvement comes against the backdrop of signs of stability in the June numbers that fell a mere 1.9 percent, 1.6 percent in May and 1.3 percent in April, compared with a year to date decline of 5.1 percent in June, 6.5 percent to April and 8.1 percent to March.
This development, if sustained, has far-reaching implications for a wide range of the economy. Apart from indicating a pick-up in foreign exchange inflows, companies supplying goods and services to the tourism sector should see an increase in business activities.