Bank of Jamaica paid back US$83.75 million to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during August, helping to reduce the Net International Reserves (NIR) from US$2.18 billion down to US$2.12 billion at the end of August.
Estimated Official Gross Reserves represent 26.68 weeks of Goods Imports at the end of August down from 28.12 weeks in July and 19.17 weeks of Goods and Servics Imports, a decline form 20.21 weeks in July.
The reserves place the central bank in a good position to intervene in the Foreign exchange market, during the rest of the year if they so desire. Importantly, it gives them the physiological advantage, to keep speculators guessing as to their next move, now that the rate of the Jamaican dollar has been holding steady, against the US dollar, since they made a major intervention into the market, on July 10.
The months of high demand and low supply is here, with the commencement of September, and should end by Mid December. Whatever, the level of intervention is, it should be relatively small, ahead of the winters months, when supply tends to be greater than demand.
NIR slips with IMF pay back
September 8, 2014 by