Jamaica’s interest rates holding for now

Zero inflation in December and prospects that low to negative inflation for the first four months of 2022 might have checked the move by the Bank of Jamaica to further engineer further increase in interest rates at this time.
At its latest Bank of Jamaica certificate of deposit (CD) auction, in the amount of $11 billion that was auctioned last Wednesday, January 4, the yield held, for the 30 day instrument, remaining the same as the out turn at the December 29 auction, at 4.13 percent, marginally lower than the rate in mid October.
Bids amounting to $21.53 billion were received covering 85 applications. There were 49 successful Bids with rates ranging between 4 and 4.2 percent. The highest bid was 5.5 percent for $1 million that was not successful.
Bank of Jamaica reduced the amount of CDS to $36.5 billion that is down from $46.5 billion at the peak late last year in mid-October, with the average rate at 4.17 percent.