Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaica’s money market liquidity contracted last week, as measured by the aggregated current balances held by deposit-taking institutions (DTIs). 

As at July 31 the total aggregate current balance amounted to J$56.03 billion, marking a 12.3 per cent contraction compared to the previous week. Demand for money market instruments was strong, as evidenced by the oversubscription in the weekly Bank of Jamaica’s (BOJ) 30-day Certificate of Deposit (CD) auctions. 

Total bids amounted to J$49.46 billion relative to the J$45 billion issue size, while the average yield increased to 6.24 per cent from 6.11 per cent the previous week. The J$49.46 billion allocated bid size marks a 17.3 per cent increase week-over-week and likely contributed to the higher yields. 

The BOJ also conducted a 14-day repurchase operation from DTIs for the provision of Jamaican dollar liquidity for J$500 million. The auction was fully subscribed with an average yield of 6.21 per cent, 

In the foreign exchange market, the Jamaican dollar was relatively flat last week (+0.05 per cent), with the US dollar selling rate moving from J$161.32 to J$161.25 last week. 

While slightly lower than the previous week, the Jamaican dollar has shown continued stability, with the exchange rate seeing greater stability in recent weeks, suggesting the market may be settling around the J$160–J$161 range.