Negative inflation in February

Point-to-point inflation in Jamaica has bent back close to the Bank of Jamaica’s target of 4-6 percent based on the February 2024 data released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, with a reading of 6.2 percent following monthly inflation plunging by 0.6 percent for the month and follows a fall of 0.10 percent in January.
The decline was influenced by the decreases in the index for the divisions ‘Food and Non Alcoholic Beverages’ (1.1 percent) and ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ (1.6 percent).

Jamaica’s Unemployment dives to 4.2%

Jamaica’s unemployment rate dropped to a record low of 4.2 percent in October last year and is down compared with the unemployment rate at 4.5 percent in both April and July 2023, data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica show.
The number of employed persons in October 2023, rose to 1,320,400, marginally up from 1.3151 million persons in July last year and 1.3126 million in April. The data shows that in October 2023, there were 57,300 unemployed persons in the labour force.

Cooling inflation demands lower interest rates

Inflation cooled considerably over the past year in Jamaica, to 5.1 percent to October 2023, data just released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) shows. The rate is down from 5.9 percent for the period this year to September 2023, and down from 9.9 percent for the October 2022 period.
Statin also stated that inflation for October came in at points 0.8 percent, sharply down from the same period last year at 1.5 percent. October’s inflation is worse than the 0.5 percent that occurred in September this year. But spike in oil prices would have played a big role in October inflation. The fall in oil price to the low $70 levels currently, is signalling that inflation in November is likely going to be moderate with the year to date inflation then heading for the low 4 percent range.
According to the report, inflation in October was driven primarily by the upward movement in the division of ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’. The increase in the division’s index was mainly attributed to higher rates for electricity, water and sewage. In addition, ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ also contributed to the increase.
Point to point inflation is now well within the Bank of Jamaica’s mandated target range of 4-6 percent, but the fiscal year numbers which are the basis for their target could be much higher than the figure above. Regardless the central bank runs the risk of driving the economy into recession if they are not careful and move to ease interest rates fast.
Recent data from a large number of listed companies show sluggish revenues growth and lower profit for the September quarter compared with 2022 as well as the first half of 2023, added to this, tourist arrivals slowed considerably in recent months compared to the earlier part of the year and that industry has been the major driver of economic activity this year and added to that the construction sector has been in decline and could worsen.

Unemployment steadies for Jamaica

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Jamaica’s unemployment rate was held at 4.5 percent In July 2023, the same as April this year but the number of persons employed rose marginally to 1.3151 million persons up from 1.3126 million in April this year, data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) reports show.
Some 47,000 more persons were employed in July 2023 compared to July 2022 and reflects an 8.5 percent increase over the 43,300 newly employed in April this year.
There was an increase, mostly males, in persons employed in the occupation group ‘Elementary Occupations’, while more females were employed as ‘Service Workers, Shop and Market Sales Workers’ and ‘Clerks’. The industry, with the largest increase in employment was in Real Estate and Other Business Services and ‘Construction.
In July 2023, there were 1,377,300 persons in the Labour Force, an increase of 19,600 or 1.4 percent compared to July 2022. The male labour force increased by 8,400 or 1.2 percent to 734,400 and the female by 11,200 (1.8 percent) to 624,900.
Statin reports that the participation rate was 65.6 per cent, an increase of 0.9 percentage points, which compares favourably worldwide. The participation rate for males is 71.2 percent and females 60.1 percent, for an increase by 0.7 and 1.0 percentage points, respectively.

Jamaica’s labour market has tightened.

For comparison, Investopedia reports that “the World Bank’s most recent data from 2022, shows that the U.S. participation rate falls in the middle of the pack at 62 percent, a few points ahead of the world rate of 60 percent.”
In July 2023, the number of unemployed persons was 62,200, a decrease of 27,500 or a solid 30.7 percent compared to July 2022 and marginally up from 61,300 in April. The number of unemployed males was 24,600, a decrease of 13,000 or 34.6 percent. The number of unemployed females was 37,600, a decrease of 14,500 or 27.8 percent. The number of unemployed youths in the age group of 14 -24 years decreased by 9,000 or26.0 percent to 25,600.

Inflation moderating fast in Jamaica

Inflation in Jamaica continues to moderate according to the latest report on the All-Jamaica Consumer Price Index released this week by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) showing that the point-to-point inflation rate as of February 2023 was 7.8 percent, this compares with 8.1 percent reported to January, this year.
The rate of inflation over the first two months of the year is 0.2 percent, in line with the average for the last four months and is now running at 45 percent below the average of 0.37 percent for the four months to February last year. Factors that could lower the pace, even more, are the recent revaluation of the Jamaica dollar and prices for some goods that are declining as new inventory items cost falls compared to the stock of goods in 2022 and most importantly the recent fall in the price of oil.
The CPI increased by 0.5 percent for February 2023 the release stated, up from a modest decline in January. The latest “increase was mainly influenced by a 2.7 percent increase in the index for the division Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels. The increase in the index for the division Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels was impacted by higher electricity rates which resulted in a 7.4 percent rise in the index for the group Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels. There was a negligible decline in the heavily weighted Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages division as prices continued to fall for items within the class Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses, by 2.4 percent. This was however at a slower rate when compared to the (-5.8%) that was recorded for the previous month, January 2023”.

Has Jamaican economy fully recovered?

The Jamaican economy grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter of this year over a similar period in 2020, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, overall GDP was still less than for the first quarter in 2020 but not far behind and with the faster pick up in visitor arrivals in the June quarter and its linkages to the rest of the economy GDP could be back to 2019 levels.

Image courtesy of arztsamui/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The economic rebound is happening much faster than official reports suggested. Most likely, except for mining, the overall economy could exceed that of 2019, early data from the tourism sector for the June quarter suggests. The hotel and restaurant sector that grew 107 percent in the March quarter over 2022, with the tourist arrivals at just 72 percent of 2019 outturn. Data of visitor arrivals in the June quarter show the sector looks like it may come in around 97 percent of 2019 and will help push the industry to near full recovery compared to a 78 percent the hotel and restaurant sector represents in the 2022 first quarter versus 2019.  The only other sectors that are down significantly are mining at a mere 28 percent of 2019 and Other Services at 85 percent of that in 2019.

Agriculture is the best performing sector

Statin puts output for the economy in real terms at $189.9 billion at the end of March, just shy of the $191 billion for the first quarter of 2020 but 3 percent off the $195.7 billion in the 2019 first quarter. The economy would need to grow 7.3 percent in 2022 in the second quarter to equal the 2019 outturn of 197 billion.
The data for GDP going back to the early 21 century reveal that the country’s GDP growth has been anaemic as the 2019 GDP of $197 billion is just above the 2008 first quarter of $194 billion.

BOJ is wrong as inflation keeps falling

Jamaica’s central bank (BOJ) was granted independence in 2021 but they seem to be making a mess of it. For much of last year they fiddled around telling the country that inflation was well under control and that it would remain within the band of 4-6 percent for two years, that’s before they found out that it wasn’t.
They informed the Ministry of Finance in April last year, why they could not increase interest rates as that would trim economic growth. In May, they made an erroneous statement that inflation was still getting higher when the underlying data was suggesting that it was improving and close to their target.
According to BOJ inflation was 11.8 percent in April and would get worse over the next two months.
ICInsider.com advised that they were wrong and that inflation was running close to the target since October and therefore was not getting worse but was improving.
According to the BOJ after its meetings held on 12, 13 and 18 of May 2022, “the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) noted that inflation at April 2022 of 11.8 percent was higher than the outturn at March 2022 and represented the ninth consecutive month that inflation has been above the Bank’s target range of 4.0 to 6.0 percent. While inflation is forecasted to rise further over the next two months, the Bank forecasts inflation to fall in the second half of the year, consistent with consensus forecast for a fall in commodity prices. This means that the public should start to see lower inflation rates each month, beginning in the second half of 2022, as long as tensions between Russia and Ukraine do not escalate and inflation among Jamaica’s trading partners falls.”
The latest data from Statin is once more confirming what we stated last month and casting serious doubts on the authority of the central bank.  Statin’s latest reading on inflation is 0.3 percent for May with the year or year rate down to 10.8 percent, which is down 100 basis points from the April reading. The monthly rate for May is the lowest since November last year with zero inflation and April with negative 0.5.
Since October last year, some seven months ago even before the interest rate hikes took effect, inflation was just over 6.4 percent per annum. With an average of 0.535 percent per month. For the period from December last year, the average rate is 0.547 percent per month, but since January it is running at 5.46 percent per annum.
The rate is moderating, but the country is not out of the woods as yet. There are some hopeful signs for the coming months. The rate of exchange of the Jamaica dollar is now officially J$153.45 to the US dollar compared to around $156 up recently, this will cut the cost of imports and will contribute in a major way to cutting imported inflation. The recent increase in interest rates will also slow down economic activity.
The inflation trend since October last year, suggests BOJ has overdone the interest rate hike and the rate should start the downward trek before the end of the year.

Jamaica’s inflation down considerably

Oil prices came back from the pre-Ukrainian war prices easing inflation in Jamaica in April, with the country posting the lowest inflation rate since April last year. The year over year inflation rate is up to 11.8 percent according to Statin’s latest read on inflation.

Increased fuel prices added to inflation.

The release from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica would lead to a view that despite the negative 0.1 percent for April 2022, that inflation is still rising. That of course is false. Over the past seven months, inflation is trending well within the Bank of Jamaica’s range of 4 to 6 percent, at 5.10 percent annualised, with March being the worse month with a 1.6 percent increase, fueled a lot by the events associated with the Ukrainian war, but for that, the rate may well be lower than it currently sits.
The trend is in keeping with ICInsider.com report earlier this year, suggesting that inflation was well in control from the latter part of 2021.
The reduction in inflation in April according to the release by Statin, “was occasioned by electricity rates, which mainly resulted from lower fuel charges.”
The above decline was tempered by Statin states, by the 1.1 percent increase for the group ‘Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Relating to the Dwelling due to increased water and sewage rates. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’, increased by 0.5 percent, as most classes within the division recorded higher inflation rates. There were reduced prices for Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas, pulses, Fruit and nuts.

Unemployment at record levels in Jamaica

As Jamaica’s economy continues to recover from the negative effects of Covid-19, with a sharp drop in the number of persons unemployed and the number of persons employed is 16,000 less than the previous highest previous level in January 2020, according to data released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin)
“In January 2022, there were 1,257,100 employed persons, an increase of 57,800 or 4.8 percent over January 2021”, Statin reported. But the 2022 numbers lag that of January 2020 with 1,273 million persons employed. With a full labour force of 1.34 million only 83,000 persons were regarded as unemployed as of January, the lowest on record with an unemployment rate of 6.2 percent bettering the previous lowest rate of 7.1 percent in October last year and much better than 8.8 percent for the same quarter of 2021.
While the unemployed numbers have fallen, the number of persons in the workforce declined from 1.373 million in 2020 to 1.34 million in 2022 a drop of 39,000. The job seeking rate declined to just 3.9 percent in the latest survey down from 4.9 percent in January 2020.
The largest increase in employment by occupation group was in ‘Clerks’. There were 120,500 persons employed in the occupation group ‘Clerks’ in January 2022, increased by 22,100 or 22.5 percent compared to January 2021.
Real Estate and Other Business Services had the largest increase by industry group compared to January 2021.

The Hampshire Apartments complex a Guardian Life project.

There were 126,600 persons employed in this industry group in January 2022, an increase of 25,200 or 24.9 percent versus the 2021 quarter. The second highest increase was in ‘Accommodation and Food Service Activities’, which employed 13,900 more persons.
The number of persons classified as Outside the Labour Force was 755,600 in January 2022, a decrease of 22,400 or 2.9 percent from 778,000 in January 2021.
Of import, the data would have done at a period when the tourism sector was operating at around 30 percent capacity as well as some other businesses that were yet to recover fully from the decline since 2020, as such the next reading could result in another fall in the unemployment rate and a strong possibility that total employment could get to record levels.

Jamaica’s GDP drops 6.7 percent in Q1

GDP fell 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2021 due to the 9.9 percent fall in category service industries, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reported.

Mining records GDP gains in 2021

Declines recorded for service industries except for government services. GDP for Hotels and restaurants fell 56 percent, being the main contributor to the decline. The Goods Producing Industries grew by 2.6 percent, with mining and Quarrying up 7.1 percent. Construction grew 10.5 percent, but Manufacturing suffered a 1.1 percent decline. Agriculture fell 2 percent due to drought conditions, Statin stated.
Declines were experienced in Other Services 21.9 percent, Transport, Storage and Communication 7.8 percent, Electricity & Water Supply 6.9 percent, Wholesale & Retail Trade; Repairs; Installation of Machinery & Equipment 5.1 percent, Real Estate, Renting & Business Activities 1.9 percent and Finance and Insurance Services 1.2 percent.

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