Remittance inflows to Jamaica climbed 3.7 percent to US$279.6 million in October 2024, from US$270.7 million in the similar 2023 period, with inflows of US$2.794 billion for year to October, slipping marginally from US$2.796 billion in the similar period 2023.
Remittances inflows to Jamaica which ended at US$2.4 billion in 2019 surged to US$2.9 billion in 2020 peaking at US$3.497 billion in 2021 and have remained above $3.3 billion since and are on track to match the US$3.37 billion received in calendar year 2023.
“Remittances from the United States accounted for 67.7 percent of total flows, down from 69.5 percent share recorded for October 2023. Other source countries which contributed a notable share of remittances for the month were the United Kingdom 11.0 percent, followed by Canada 10.7 percent and the Cayman Islands 6.2 percent”, data released by Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) show.
“Jamaica’s decline of 0.1 percent for the calendar year to October 2024, compares to growth of 8.6 percent, 2.3 percent and 0.8 percent recorded for Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador, respectively, BOJ stated.
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 end of the auction total CDs that will be outstanding for 30 days amount to $128.5 billion this is down from under $160 billion dollars in late March when the average rate was 11.13 percent.
The January inflows push the total at the close last year of US$4.76 billion to US$4.87 billion and just short of the US$5 billion mark. The build-up of the NIR comes against the background of the tight monetary policy pursued by the country’s central bank that has sucked local money from the financial market, by use of certificates of deposit (CDs). Over the past year, the Bank of Jamaica’s open market instruments mainly CDs have moved up by J$74 billion to $247 billion. Apart from funds being bought from the market, the NIR would also have grown by interest earned on the funds being held as reserves which could be around US$200 million per year based on current interest rates internationally.