Jamaica’s Net International Reserves (NIR) fell by US$79 million in January this year to US$4.679 billion from US$4.758 billion at the end of 2023 and is up US$703 million above US$3.976 billion at the end of 2022, but data indicates the country in a far better foreign exchange position than the previous two years.
The Bank of Jamaica NIR report, states that the reserves represent 23.6 weeks of Estimated Gross Official Reserves in weeks of Goods & Services Imports, down from 25.2 weeks in December 2022.
The decline follows the sale of $30 million to the market through the B-FXITT intervention on January 15th, $20 million on January 16th, $30 million on January 25 and US$20 million on January 26 totalling US$100 million and exceeding the reduction in the NIR in January, but the intervention seems to be on the decline since 2021. In January last year, the central bank intervened 5 times with sales of US$140 million and in January 2021 they pumped US$185.68 million into the system on six occasions.
Jamaica’s NIR slips in January but
World Bank and CDB funds swell NIR
Net International Reserves surged 10 percent in March with a rise of US$303 to US$3.32 billion from US$3.016 billion at the end of February this year.
The buildup comes against a huge selloff of US dollars by dealers in the market between January and March, but the bulk of the increase did not come from normal inflows, information provided to this publication by Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) indicates. BOJ, in response to ICInsider.com enquiry as to the source for the increase, states “the growth of approximately US$303 million in the NIR for the month of March 2021 was mainly influenced by government-related receipts of approximately US$217 million; of which, US$175 million represented multilateral loan inflows from the World Bank and the CDB. The remainder of the inflows were received from authorised dealers and Cambios, under the Bank’s Surrender Arrangement.”
Estimated Reserves represents 53.65 weeks of Goods Imports and 38.71 weeks of Goods & Services Imports. At the end of December, the reserves were $3.13 billion but fell by $148 million in January to $2.98 billion and then increased by marginally to the close of February.
