In another day of buoyant foreign exchange trading, the Jamaican dollar pushed below the $134 mark for one US dollar at the close of the market on Friday.
Dealers bought US$48.8 million at an average rate of $132.914 and sold US$46 million at $133.80 bettering the closing rate on Thursday of $134.02 for the $40.32 million sold and a bit higher than the $132.88 for the US$30.92 Million bought by dealers.
Overall the market had US$56.6 million of inflows of all currencies and US$53.17 million of sales on Friday compared to the buying of US$45.26 and the selling of US$44.58 million of all currencies.
Friday’s rate is the lowest since July 24, when it averaged $134.05 with July 23 just below at $133.39. The local dollar slipped to its lowest level ever on August 23, this year at $137.96
Jamaican$ plunges below $134 to US$1
J$ rate could make more gains
The rate of exchange for the Jamaican dollar versus the US dollar could fall below the J$134 mark at the close of trading on Thursday for the first time since the early summer.
At mid-day on Thursday, the average rate for selling US dollar, declined to J$133.999 for one US dollar, down from $134.25 on Wednesday, $134.43 on Tuesday and $134.51 on Monday.
In Thursday trading, at mid-day, dealers bought $14 million in United States dollars and sold $12 million while they bought Can$ 15 million and sold just $4 million. That compares with Can$ 5 million being purchased on Wednesday and selling of Can$11 million.
The softening in the rate for the US dollar comes from the Bank of Jamaica’s weekly intervention into the market, by a scheduled sale of US$10 million on Wednesday.
BOJ next scheduled sale is US$10 million each on 10th and 17th of October with none planned on October 24.
Inflation picks up
Price increases in Jamaica for the year to August rose to 1.6 percent with August adding 0.9 percent increase to consumer prices, slightly less than the 1 percent increase in July while price increases for the past twelve months was 3.9 percent.
The fiscal year-to-date is running at 1.9 percent and seems to be running below the 4-6 percent range the central bank targeted but may fall just below the Bank’s latest revised forecast 0f 3.5-6.5 percent, with the months ahead, usually recording lower inflation than the summer months.
According to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), “The upward movement in August 2018 CPI was influenced by a 1.6 percent increase, in the index for the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages division, primarily due to higher prices for agricultural produce resulting in an increase of 0.6 percent in the class Vegetables and Starchy Foods.” “Another influence on the upward movement was the Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Household maintenance division as a result of the increase in the Minimum Wage of approximately 13 percent,” Statin stated. A fall of 0.1 percent in the index for the division Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels, due to a lower electricity rates helped to ease the pressure of big increases.
Treasury bill rate almost steady at 1.71%
Interest rates essentially remained stable based on the latest Treasury bill auction that took place at Bank of Jamaica. The moved but was just modestly higher with a few basis points increase.
Applications were opened on Wednesday, at the Bank of Jamaica for $700 million Government of Jamaica Treasury Bills dated Friday, September 14, with maturity on Friday, December 14, 2018 for a 91 days duration. The Average Yield came out at 1.7093 percent with partial allotment at 2 percent. The offer attracted bids of $932,026,500. The latest T-bill rate comes against the back ground on the central holding their overnight policy rate at 2 percent.
At the auction in August, the 91 days Treasury bill cleared at an average of 1.694 percent with partial allotment at 1.756 percent. At that auction $1.863 billion chased after the $700,000 on offer. The 182 days instrument ended with an average rate of 1.878 percent with $2.53 billion going after the $700,000 in August.
Jamaica dollar in modest recovery
The Jamaican dollar traded at an average of $136.94 to the US dollar on Tuesday. Dealers sold US$52.7 million and bought $49.4 million at an average of $135.81.
Tuesday’s total intake of funds, amounted to the equivalent of US$61.96 million while US$62.65 million left the system.
Unlike Friday and Tuesday, Monday’s trading was moderate, with just US$27.65 million in all currencies bought by dealers and the selling of US$30.4 million. Buying of US dollars amounted to US$24 million at an average rate of J$134.56 and selling of US$28 million at $137.10 on Monday, compared to selling of US$40 million on Friday at $137.01. On Friday dealers sold a total of US$46.8 million in all currencies, having bought US$53.5 million, including $44.7 million in US dollars currency.
On Wednesday, last week, Bank of Jamaica sold $16.5 million to dealers pushing the total purchased for that day to US$57 million, while they sold $43.3 million at an average of $137.32. Trading of all currencies saw a total of US$55 being sold against $69 million bought by dealers.
On Thursday dealers bought only US$29.78 million, but sold US$51.4 million, with the rate clearing at an average of $137.55. In all, dealers sold the equivalent of US$53 million in all currencies.
Last week Wednesday, the BOJ offered US$16.5 million to the market and received 46 bids of US$39.15 million. The average clearing rate was $137.03. The highest bid was $137.50 and the lowest $135. On Wednesday, September 5, US$11 million, to be followed by US$10 million per week, over the next three weeks.
BOJ pumped US$65M in FX market last week
Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) scheduled B-Fxitt auction last week saw 43 bids seeking to purchase US$39.9 million but only $15 million was on offer, leaving a large amount of unsatisfied demand.
Only 17 bids succeeded in getting a portion of the funds offered for sale, but then not every bid really wanted the funds. The bids left the average rate at $138.19, with $137.90 being the lowest rate that succeeded. The lowest fully successful bid was $137.97 for US$1 million. The lowest bid received was $131.10 to purchase US$1.5 million.
On Friday, BOJ offered US$40 million in what they called a flash intervention tool. On Friday August 31, last year BOJ also had a flash intervention sales that pushed the amount of buying in the foreign exchange market on that day to US$76 million. BOJ sold US$5m on the Wednesday of that week.
The flash intervention this past week, was clearly to satisfy the unmet demand from Wednesday’s auction, 42 bids were presented amounting to US$76.9 million leaving U$26.9 million of unmet demand. The average rate declined to $137.49, with the lowest accepted bid price being $136.65 and the highest being $138.70. The lowest bid that was fully allocated was US$8 million at $137.00. Bids came in as low as $129. The lowest bid that had some success was $136.65, and this compares with $137.90 on Wednesday, suggesting that those bids that did not succeed included a large amount of low bids made to satisfy the requirement that all dealers must put in a bid. On Wednesday, this week
BOJ sold US$65M into the FX market last week.
BOJ will be carrying out their usual auction at which US$15 million will be made available, to be followed by US$10 million each, on September 5 and 12.
On Thursday, dealers bought US$33.9 million at $136.37 and sold US$35.3 at $137.96, up from a rate of $137.48 on Wednesday. On Friday, US$73.2 million was purchased by dealers at $136.75 and they sold US$46.2 million at $137.90. On Monday dealers bought US$45.5 million at $136 and sold US$50.3 million at $137.52, a fall from Friday’s Average rate.
Investors push interest rate to 1.74%
Liquidity remains high, in the Jamaican financial market with investors driving the average to 1.74 percent on Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) 30 days certificate of deposit earlier this week, as demand of $24 billion chased $8.5 billion on offer.
In mid -July, more than $50 billion in government bonds expired with interest, but government took up less than $15 billion in new bonds, as it paid back the bonds in cash, using a large draw down from funds held at Bank of Jamaica by Public sector entities, amounting to $50 billion.
At the end of June, Public sector entities deposit at BOJ was $97 billion but fell to $46 billion after the payout of the bond. The payout added to the high level of liquidity in the market that helped drive interest rates down to 2 percent at the mid-July Treasury bill Auction.
On Tuesday, July 31, applications were received by BOJ for $8.5 billion BOJ 3 percent Certificate of deposit through a competitive price auction. The issue attracted 61 bids amounting to $24 billion, only 41 bids were successful, with the average yield of 1.74 percent. The lowest submitted rate was 1.39999 percent for $40 million and the highest was 6 percent for $40 million. The highest rate for full allocation was 1.83 percent in the amount of $100 million.
The average rate is below BOJ’s overnight rate of 2 percent and the last 91 days Treasury bill rate of 1.95963 percent.
Jamaican dollar gains
Dealers in the foreign market bought US$36.76 million in US currency at an average rate of J$132.05, down $1.24 from Tuesday’s rate of $133.29.
The selling rate for the US dollar declined from J$134.05 on Tuesday as US$50.77 million was sold at an average rate of J$133.60 including US$5 million sold to Bank of Jamaica in the B-FXITT Standard Intervention Tool – buy operation, at an average J$133.65. At mid-day on Wednesday the average selling rate was $133.49 with only US$12.3 million then sold.
Overall foreign currencies purchased by dealers amounted to US$41.44 million, while selling accounted for $58 million for a net outflow of just under US$17 million. On Tuesday, net inflows of US$14 million came into the market, but for the US dollar currency, net inflows amounted to US$17 million.
For the next four weeks, the central bank will buy US$5 on Wednesday July 31 and August 8 and will sell $10 million to the market on August 19.
BOJ buys $5m at J$133.65
The rate Bank of Jamaica paid on Wednesday, July 25 to purchase US$5 million in the B-FXITT Standard Intervention Tool – buy operation average J$133.65.
Eligible dealers placed bids to buy only $5.5 million with the highest priced offer at 137.24 to sell $200,000 and the lowest at $126 for $200,000. BOJ purchased funds as high as $137.10 amounting 40 percent of the amount offered while the amount of $350,000 that was offered at $137 was fully taken up. Eligible Offers were received from 19 sellers while 18 had funds bought.
The central bank will buy US$5 on Wednesday July 31 and August 8 and will sell $10 million to the market on August 19.
Jamaican Dollar falls to $134.05 to US$
BOJ will buy US$5M from the market on Wednesday.
Foreign exchange dealers bought the equivalent of $66 million and sold US$51 million on Tuesday with the United states dollar accounting for US$60.4 million of the purchased amount and US$43.6 million of sales, a difference of US$17 million.
Similar to Monday when the purchase of US dollars were even with the sales with a total of US$44 million bought and US$44.5 million sold of all currencies, the rate paid by the public to purchase the US dollar jumped over the closing rate on Friday.
On Friday last US$37 million was purchased by dealers of all currency including US$35.5 million in US currency and US$27 million in US currency was sold at an average rate of $132.96, as a total of US$28 million sold of all currencies.
Based on the schedule of intervention by Bank of Jamaica, the central bank will buy US$5 million from the market on Wednesday to be followed by similar amounts on August 2, and August 8.