At today’s auction of Certificate of deposits, Bank of Jamaica received 193 bids amounting to $18.33 billion for $12 billion in 30 days CDs of which 159 bids were successful at an average rate of 6.65 percent, down from 6.75 percent last week and just shy of the Overnight rate of 6.50 percent.
Today’s auction resulted in the total outstanding amount for the 30-day CDs of $131 billion, an increase from last week of $126 billion.
BOJ CD rate drops to 6.65%
October 2, 2024 by
Flat remittance flows to Jamaica
August 26, 2024 by
Remittances grew by a mere 0.1 percent for the first six months of 2024 over 2023 to Jamaica, with inflows of US$1.651 billion, from $1.649 billion in 2023.
Total inflows for June, this year fell 2.8 percent to US$278 million from $286 million in 2023 and is worse than the one percent fall in May, with inflows of $287 million, down from $290 million in 2023.
Barring a major pick up in inflows in the last six months of the year, inflows are likely to result in 2024 being the third year of decline since inflows peaked at $3.497 billion in 2021, and yet inflows would be well ahead of $2.9 billion achieved in 2020 and $2.4 billion in 2019.
Tempered cuts in overnight rate
August 20, 2024 by
Bank of Jamaica will cut its overnight rate to 6.75 percent effective Wednesday this week, the country’s central bank announced today.
The new rate is a reduction from 7 percent per annum that was in place form late 2021. The reduction has been telegraphed to the market, with CD rates falling to 8.84 percent last week, with inflation running under 4 percent per annum for 2024 at the bottom end of the bank’s mandated target.
Surge in remittance inflows to Jamaica
July 28, 2024 by
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Total remittance inflows into Jamaica, jumped 5.9 percent in April and 1.2 percent for the four months to April, the second such increase for the year, with April inflows rising to US$288 million from $272 last year.
Inflows for April while up over 2023 is lower than the March intake of US$297.5 million, data released by the country’s central bank show.
Remittance inflows, a major source of foreign exchange for the country, rose by 1.2 percent with total inflows of US$1.085 billion compared with US$1.073 billion to April 2023.
The United States of America continues to be Jamaica’s largest source of remittance flows in April 2024, accounting for 69.7 percent of total flows, down from 70.2 percent in April last year. Other countries which contributed a notable share of remittances for the month were the United Kingdom, with 10.5 percent followed by Canada at 9.1 percent and the Cayman Islands at 6.3 percent, the report from Bank of Jamaica states.
BOJ CD rates inched higher
June 5, 2024 by
Rates on Bank of Jamaica certificate of deposits (CDs) closed higher to end at an average of 10.02 percent in Wednesday’s public auction of $37 billion.
The highest rate cleared at 10.325 percent which was only partially filled with 334 successful bids out of a total of 373 covering $444.283 billion that the central bank received for the auction.
Today’s average rate was slightly above the 9.98 percent in last week’s auction. This week’s auction will result in the total amount of 30 days CD’s that the Bank of Jamaica holds falling to $125.5 billion from $128.5 billion in the previous week.
Remittance inflows to Jamaica slip
June 4, 2024 by
After a modest increase in total remittance inflows into Jamaica in February, remittances for March slipped from the same period last by 1.3 percent to US$297.5 million but was higher than the US$295 million in March 2022, data released by the country’s central bank show.
Remittance inflows which are major source of foreign for the country and remains fairly stable, slipped moderately for the three months to March this year, with total inflows down a mere 0.4 percent to US$797 million compared with US$801 million to March 2023. The decline in March albeit small, is a continuation of several months of decline since May 2023.
The United States of America continues to be Jamaica’s largest source of remittance flows in March 2024, accounting for 69.8 percent of total flows, down from 71.7 percent in March 2023. Other countries which contributed a notable share of remittances for the month were the United Kingdom, with 10.6 percent followed by Canada at 8.7 percent and the Cayman Islands with 6.7 percent, the report from Bank of Jamaica states.
BOJ CD rates fall below 10%
May 30, 2024 by
The Bank of Jamaica’s latest offering of $47 billion to the public in certificates of deposit (CD), resulted in a fall in rates with an average of 9.98 percent at the auction that attracted $60.6 billion in 445 bids of which 358 were successful with the highest rate peaking at 10.35 percent.
This week’s rate is 16 percent lower than the peak on April 5, this year, with the average rate then of 11.59 percent.
The average rate of today’s auction is the lowest in months and is lower than last week’s average of 10.19 percent following an auction of $34.5 billion which cleared at an average of 10.19 percent. The total amount of 30 days CD outstanding is $128.5 billion.
Investors should pay attention to developments in this section of the financial market to get an early reading as to the trend in interest rates and not on Bank of Jamaica overnight rate.
BOJ’s policy pushes Jamaica into deflation
May 15, 2024 by
The inflation continues to moderate at a rapid pace, with the latest report out of the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reflecting a fall of 0.7 percent for April, following the decline in March 2024 of 0.5 percent bringing the year over year inflation to around 4.8 percent from 5.6 percent in March, still within the BOJ target of 4-6 percent but to the lower end of the target.
The 2024 calendar year inflation is now negative 1.9 percent and seems set to push inflation to zero by the end of summer after the months when inflation tends to rise above norms.
According to Statin, downward movement in the CPI for April was due mainly to a 2.3 per cent decline in the index for the ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ division as a result of lower electricity, water and sewage rates. Also contributing to the fall in the inflation rate was a 0.6 per cent fall in the index for the division, ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’.
Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) based there focus wrongly on past inflation rather than currently what is happening is placing the country into dire straits as month by month inflation has cooled from several months ago and deflation is what appears to be taking place now.
Jamaica’s NIR drops
May 12, 2024 by
Jamaica’s Net International Reserves declined by US$35 million in April moving from US$5.137 billion at the end of March this year to US$5.102 billion at the end of April 2024, data recently released by Bank of Jamaica show.
The balance at the end of April which exceeds the balance of US$4.76 billion at the end of December last year represents 25.78 weeks of Goods & Services Imports and 37.51 weeks of imports of goods, the Bank of Jamaica report stated.
Remittance inflows to Jamaica fall
April 26, 2024 by
Remittance inflows to Jamaica continue to decline at the start of 2024 following several months of decline last year, with inflows for January 2024 amounting to US$246 million, down a relatively small 1.1 percent compared with US$248.6 in January 2023.
The decline represents the eighth consecutive month of negative inflows since June last year for the country.
Jamaica’s decline of 1.1 percent was in contrast to the growth of 3.8 percent in January last year. Total inflows last year declined by two percent to US$3.37 billion from US$3.44 billion in 2022. Inflows peaked at US$3.497 billion in 2021.
