CDs rates remain steady

July 24, 2024 by

Bank of Jamaica HQ.

Rates on 30 day certificate of deposit offered by Bank of Jamaica, rose marginally at the latest auction of $50 billion, with an average interest rate of 9.54 percent, up marginally from 9.47 percent last week, bringing the total amount of 30 days CD’s to $232 billion, down from $235 billion following last week’s auction.
A total of 451 bids were received by the central bank amounting to $60.8 billion of which 400 were successful. The highest interest rate payable was 9.85 percent of which 70.48 percent of the amount that was a part of the bid was satisfied.
Although CDs rates have fallen from the peak of nearly 12 percent in April they are still well off from the Bank of Jamaica’s Overnight rate of 7 percent.

 

Filed Under: Breaking News, Economy

Falling interest rates

July 24, 2024 by

On Friday, July 5 investors in the Bank of Jamaica’s 28 days $37 billion CDs auction received an average interest rate of 9.91 percent with the highest successful rate at 10.249 percent, resulting in $141.5 billion being siphoned out of the financial market, with 299 successful bids out of a total 377 bids.
On July 12, Bank of Jamaica offered just $9 billion in CDs were offered, reducing the outstanding CDS to $139.5 billion, after attracting 278 bids covering $24.9 billion with just 74 successful bids from a high of 9.65 percent to a low of 8.50, with an average of 9.40 percent.
In the past week, Bank of Jamaica offered $36 billion and obtained 472 bids amounting to $52.68 billion with 392 succeeding with an average rate of 9.47 percent. The highest successful rate came out at 9.85 percent, the total amount of the 28 days CDS stood at $135 billion.
The average of the above rates is well below 11.90 percent on April 17 when the total amount of 28 days CDS was $155 billion.
The latest offering of $50 billion today is lower than the $53 billion that expires on Friday and is in line with BOJ’s commitment to ease liquidity within the financial market.

Filed Under: Economy, Real Estate

Jamaican workers not as scarce as thought

July 19, 2024 by

Jamaica’s labour market is not as tight as previously thought, according to data on the employed labour force released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, this week.

Jamaica’s labour market has more capacity than previously thought.

The number of persons in the labour force jumped by 109,000 since October last year to 1.486 million up from 1.378 million last year, even as persons under 15 years old are now excluded from the data.  The unemployment rate climbed to 80,700 persons for an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent compared to 57,300 or 4.2 percent last October, with 29,000 more persons employed in January this year, with a participation rate of 68.9 percent compared to 65.5 percent based on the October 2023 report.
“The changes reflect the latest international standards and approved guidelines in labour statistics proposed by the ILO, ensuring that the More data provided by the Institute remains relevant and comparable nationally and internationally,” Statin stated.
To be classified as unemployed, an individual must now meet the following three conditions: Absence of employment, Active job-seeking and Availability for work.
“Employment in this new framework is more narrowly defined as work performed for pay or profit. As a result, activities such as own-use production work, volunteer work and unpaid trainee work are now excluded,” Statin said. Persons under 15 years old are no longer included in the workforce, with the base now 15 years and over.
There were 100,700 young persons in the 15 to 24 age group who were not employed, not enrolled in educational activities or currently in training.
The number of persons outside the labour force declined to 669,400 compared to 725,000 in October last year.
While the labour force increased in 2024, the population used to compute the employment rate is down to 2.733 million in 2024 versus 2.746 million in October last year.
The reference week for the survey has moved from the last full week of the previous quarter to the first full week of the current quarter.

Filed Under: Economy, General News Tagged With: , , ,

Tourism growth flounders will hit GDP

July 14, 2024 by

The Jamaican economy is set to suffer a major setback in the second quarter with tourist traffic to the island falling according to preliminary data of visitor traffic through the country’s two international airports.
Passenger traffic through Sangster’s International Airport in Montego Bay in June slipped marginally from 448,500 last year to 447,400 which dragged the six months performance to an increase of just 3.2 percent to 2,742,400 from 2,656,800 in 2023, while Kingston Norman Manley dipped 2.2 percent to 144,400 from 147,700 in 2023, and declined 2.3 percent to 810,600 from 829,500.
While the critical arrivals grew attractively in the first quarter, data released by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacífico shows Montego Bay enjoying an 8 percent rise with Kingston flat, Montego Bay suffered a 4.2 percent fall in April and was effectively flat in May. Kingston was down7.7 percent in April and 1.1 percent in May. The decline affects the sector and will spill over into support industries such as transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and utilities and also affect communities that cater to the sector.

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Jamaica’s inflation jumps in May

June 17, 2024 by

Inflation in Jamaica for May 2024 was 0.5 percent, down from 0.6 percent in May 2023 according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) computed All Jamaica Consumer Price Index. The five months of deflation for 2024 comes in at negative 1.3 percent.
Statin also stated the upward movement was due mainly by a 1.1 percent rise in the index for the heaviest weighted division of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages.
The point to point inflation fell marginally over the past 12 months to 5.2 percent, down from 5.3 percent in April and roughly at the mid-point of the target range of four to 6 percent set by the government of Jamaica for the country’s central bank to attain.
Importantly, Statin said that Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (3.9 percent), ‘Transport’ (9.7 percent) and ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ (3.8 percent) were the major contributor to inflation in the past 12 months.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Economy Tagged With: , , ,

BOJ cd rate falls below 10%

June 13, 2024 by

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  since the 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.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Economy Tagged With: , ,

Jamaica tourist arrivals hit the skids

June 10, 2024 by

After a robust start to stopover arrivals in the early months of the year, data on passenger traffic passing through Jamaica’s two major international airports declined in May, with passenger traffic passing through the Sangster International Airport slipping from 402,000 in May last year to 401,500, down 0.3 percent.
The airport traffic although not telling the full picture of stopover arrivals, is a good barometer of likely outcomes showing that Sangster International Airport which accounts for around 85 percent of visitor arrivals is up just 3.9 percent to 2,294,800 for the year to date.
This is the second month of decline for Montego Bay that had a 4.2 percent reduction to 435,500 in April from 454,500 for the same period last year, bringing the year to date increase then to 4.8 percent to 1.8928 million.
Traffic through Kingston’s Norman Manley continues the decline since the start of the year, with a fall of 1.1 percent to 139,900 compared to 141,500, with traffic for the first five months of this year, declining by 2.2 percent to 667,300 from 682,300.
The data is taken from a report on airport traffic during May published by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico operators of Jamaica’s two major airports.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Economy, Feature Stories, FX Market Tagged With: , , ,

BOJ CD rates inched higher

June 5, 2024 by

Rates on Bank of Jamaica certificate of deposits (CDs) closed higher to end at an average of 10.02 percent in Wednesday’s public auction of $37 billion.

The highest rate cleared at 10.325 percent which was only partially filled with 334 successful bids out of a total of 373 covering $444.283 billion that the central bank received for the auction.

Today’s average rate was slightly above the 9.98 percent in last week’s auction. This week’s auction will result in the total amount of 30 days CD’s that the Bank of Jamaica holds falling to $125.5 billion from $128.5 billion in the previous week.

Filed Under: Economy, Money Market Tagged With: , ,

Remittance inflows to Jamaica slip

June 4, 2024 by

After a modest increase in total remittance inflows into Jamaica in February, remittances for March slipped from the same period last by 1.3 percent to US$297.5 million but was higher than the US$295 million in March 2022, data released by the country’s central bank show.
Remittance inflows which are major source of foreign for the country and remains fairly stable, slipped moderately for the three months to March this year, with total inflows down a mere 0.4 percent to US$797 million compared with US$801 million to March 2023.  The decline in March albeit small, is a continuation of several months of decline since May 2023.
The United States of America continues to be Jamaica’s largest source of remittance flows in March 2024, accounting for 69.8 percent of total flows, down from 71.7 percent in March 2023. Other countries which contributed a notable share of remittances for the month were the United Kingdom, with 10.6 percent followed by Canada at 8.7 percent and the Cayman Islands with 6.7 percent, the report from Bank of Jamaica states.

Filed Under: Economy, FX Market Tagged With: , ,

BOJ CD rates fall below 10%

May 30, 2024 by

The Bank of Jamaica’s latest offering of $47 billion to the public in certificates of deposit (CD), resulted in a fall in rates with an average of 9.98 percent at the auction that attracted $60.6 billion in 445 bids of which 358 were successful with the highest rate peaking at 10.35 percent.
This week’s rate is 16 percent lower than the peak on April 5, this year, with the average rate then of 11.59 percent.
The average rate of today’s auction is the lowest in months and is lower than last week’s average of 10.19 percent following an auction of $34.5 billion which cleared at an average of 10.19 percent. The total amount of 30 days CD outstanding is $128.5 billion.
Investors should pay attention to developments in this section of the financial market to get an early reading as to the trend in interest rates and not on Bank of Jamaica overnight rate.

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