Both the Jamaican and US-dollar (USD) money market liquidity has remained moderate week-over-week, despite the Bank of Jamaica’s (BOJ) interventions in the foreign exchange market.

As of last week, a total of J$32.80 billion was in the market as represented by the BOJ’s aggregated current balances. The aggregated closing current account balance rose by J$14.37 billion, from J$18.43 billion on February 16, due to increase salaries being paid out.

There were two BOJ interventions in the foreign exchange market via B-FXITT last week, selling a total of US$58.125 million to fill the existing void of USD in the market. This comes as the BOJ’s Monetary Policy Committee indicated that it intends to maintain stability in the foreign exchange market and as such, there is likely to be an uptick in B-FXITT operations in the near term as required.

On the demand side, broker demand for Jamaican dollars (JMD) remained moderately liquid for both short-term and long-term placements. In the USD money market, broker market demand for USD remained high, particularly for longer-tenured funds.

In the money market, demand for short-term instruments remained high, with investors continuing to oversubscribe the recent BOJ auction. The average yield from the BOJ’s 30-day competitive price auction increased to 10.77% relative to 10.52% in the previous auction.