Date: September 9, 2019

Net International Reserves- August 2019

Jamaica’s Net International Reserves (NIR) totaled US$2,936.45 million as at August 2019, reflecting a decline of US$14.90 million relative to the US$2,951.35 million reported as at the end of July 2019 (see figure 1).

Changes in the NIR resulted from a decrease in Foreign Assets of US$17.45 million to total US$3,430.57 million compared to the US$3,448.02 million reported for July 2019. ‘Currency & Deposits’ contributed the most to the decline in Foreign Assets. ‘Currency & Deposits’ as at August 2019 totaled US$2,878.79 million reflecting a decline of US$7.81 million compared to US$2,886.60 million booked as at July 2019.

‘Securities’ amounted to US$321.38 million; US$4.58 million less the US$325.96 million reported in July 2019. Foreign Liabilities for August 2019 amounted to US$494.12 million compared to the US$496.67 million reported for July 2019. Liabilities to the IMF accounted for 100% of total foreign liabilities, reflecting a US$2.56 million decrease month over month from July 2019.

At its current value, the NIR is US$121.97 million less than its total of US$3,058.42 million as at the end of August 2018. The current reserve is able to support approximately 32.04 weeks of goods imports or 21.85 weeks of goods and services imports.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The country came in slightly below the benchmark of US$3.22 billion outlined by the International Monetary Fund for March 2019, closing the fiscal year at US$3.08 billion, US$0.13 million below targeted amount.

Following a visit by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team led by Ms. Uma Ramakrishnan between February 25- March 8, 2019 to conduct discussions on the fifth review of the island’s financial and economic program, the IMF issued a statement citing, “strong economic fundamentals and sustained implementation of the authorities’ reform program provide the private sector with an unprecedented opportunity.”

The Net International Reserve (NIR) target outlined as per the new agreement for the 2019/20 fiscal year is US$3.155 billion (see figure 2 above). As at August 2019, the Country is US$0.20 million below targeted amount.

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