Remittance inflows into Jamaica fell 1.9 percent in September to U.S$284.4 million and 1.2 percent for the year to date to just under $2.53 billion, this marks the 6th month of decline in remittances for the year to date, data from jamaica’s central bank shows.
With three months to go before the end of 2023, the market seems on track to be close to this US$3.44 billion of total inflows in 2022, with the absolute shortfall in remittances to date of just US$31 million adrift of the 2022 intake to September. The 1.9 percent fall in September is far less than the 5.9 percent decline that occurred in August and a 5.8 percent fall in April.
Soft remittance flows to end at $3.4B in 2023
Jamaica’s tourism rebound slows
Tourist arrivals to Jamaica continue to grow, but at a much reduced pace than earlier in the year, data for the all important Sangster International Airport shows. Passenger traffic passing through the airport in October grew 10.3 percent, to 350,000, up from 317,000 last year, and is well below the year to date of an increase of nearly 22 percent to 4.3 million passengers versus 3.54 million in the previous year.

Airplanes lined up at Sangster’s International Airport in early 2023.
In the case of Kingston’s, Norman Manley International Airport saw 8.9 percent fewer passengers passing to the island’s second largest airport for a second month, declining to 129,000 passengers passing through compared with 141,200 in 2022, but for the year to date, the airport saw 15.6 percent more passengers passing through than the year before when 1.2 million passed through compared to 1.47 million this year to date.
Data was taken from a release passenger traffic for the two International Airports operated by Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacifico.
According to Jamaica Tourist Board data, stopover arrivals to Jamaica for the first six months of this year, the latest period they have so far reported on, were up 26.8 percent over that of 2022 and 6.7 percent above 2019 figures, while for the quarterly to June, arrivals were up 13.6 percent over 2022 and just 9.9 percent over that of 2019.
Worst fall for remittances
Remittance inflows to Jamaica in August slipped by 5.9 percent or US$18 million, the worst monthly decline for 2023, with total inflows of US$289, down from US$307 in August 2022, data out of the Bank of Jamaica show. The decline beats the 5.8 percent decline in April, with a slippage then of US$17 million.
So far, January, March and May are the only months with positive inflows compared with 2022.
In a year of primarily monthly declines, inflows are down by 1.1 percent or US$26 million to US$2.24 billion to August from US$2.267 million for the first eight months last year and now seem likely to come in just below the US$3.44 billion total inflows for 2022.
Inflation plunges to 5.9% in past year
Inflation over the past twelve months plunged to 5.9 percent data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica states. The drop was occasioned by a 0.5 percent rise in inflation for September down sharply from 1.4 percent in September last year. The fall follows a jump in August to 6.8 percent from 6.6 percent to July.
If the rate for September holds or falls in October the twelve month rate will fall below 5 percent.
According to Statin, the main contributor to September’s movement was an 11.8 per cent rise in the index of the ‘Education’ division, due to higher tuition fees for private schools at the primary level. The inflation rate was also impacted by the 0.7 per cent ‘Transport’ division mainly as a result of higher petrol prices. The index for the heavily weighted ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ division went up by 0.1 percent. However, there was a 1.9 per cent decline in the index ‘Vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses’ class and this tempered the overall increase of the division.
Remittances tracking 2022 inflows
Remittance inflows to Jamaica for the first half of 2023 are marginally behind intakes for 2022 with $1.64 billion being taken in, 0.3 percent less than for the same period in 2022, with June slipping 0.7 percent to $286 million below the $288 million collected for June last year.
The data for the half year suggests that the total of US$3.44 billion collected in 2022 is likely to be within reach this year if the current trend continues. In 2019 gross remittance inflows were $2.4 billion, which is a billion dollars less than was collected in 2022.
According to the Bank of Jamaica, the entity that compiles the data, remittances from the USA account for 69.8 percent of total flows, down from 70.7 percent in June 2022. Other source countries with a notable share are Canada at 10.5 percent, followed by the UK and the Cayman Islands at 10.0 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.
Jamaica’ NIR jumps to record high
Jamaica’s net international reserves continue to scale new heights closing at the end of August 2023 jumped US$299 million to a record month end balance of US$4.43 billion, up from US$4.13 billion at the end of July.
The main factor driving the reserve is a reduction of amounts due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of $362 million moving the figure from US$508 million in short term debt down to US$146 million at the end of August.
At the end of December last year, the reserves stood at US$3.978 billion and have climbed US$456 million for the year to date.