Date: November 7, 2019
Net International Reserves- October 2019
Jamaica’s Net International Reserves (NIR) totaled US$3,169.57 million as at October 2019, reflecting an increase of US$71.52 million relative to the US$3,098.05 million reported as at the end of September 2019 (see figure 1).
Changes in the NIR resulted from an increase in Foreign Assets of US$74.93 million to total US$3,656.85 million compared to the US$3,581.92 million reported for September 2019. ‘Currency & Deposits’ contributed the most to the increase in Foreign Assets. ‘Currency & Deposits’ as at October 2019 totaled US$3,109.41 million reflecting an increase of US$68.11 million compared to US$3,041.30 million booked as at September 2019.
‘Securities’ amounted to US$315.18 million; US$4.11 million less the US$311.06 million reported in September 2019. Foreign Liabilities for October 2019 amounted to US$487.27 million compared to the US$483.86 million reported for September 2019. Liabilities to the IMF accounted for 100% of total foreign liabilities, reflecting a US$3.41 million increase month over month from September 2019.
At its current value, the NIR is US$244.24 million more than its total of US$2,925.33 million as at the end of October 2018. The current reserve is able to support approximately 34.15 weeks of goods imports or 23.29 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.
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team led by Uma Ramakrishnan visited Jamaica from September 9-19, 2019, to conduct discussions on the sixth and final review of Jamaica’s financial and economic program supported by the IMF’s precautionary Stand-By Arrangement (SBA).
At the end of this review, Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica and Mr. Alejandro Werner, Director of IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department, issued the following statement in Kingston:
“We are happy to announce that the IMF staff team and the Jamaican authorities agreed on the steps needed to complete the sixth and final review under the SBA, as Jamaica prepares to exit from IMF financial support. Consideration by the IMF’s Executive Board of the review is tentatively scheduled for November 2019. Upon approval, an additional SDR 160.8 million (about US$220 million) will be made available for Jamaica, bringing the total accessible credit to about US$1.63 billion. The Jamaican authorities continue to view the SBA as precautionary. The SBA will expire on November 8, 2019.”
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 October 2019, the Country is US$0.01 million above targeted amount.
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