Durrant Pate/Contributor

Data from the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is showing that demand for local money market instruments remains strong, evidenced by the oversubscription in the Bank of Jamaica’s (BOJ’s) weekly 30-day Certificate of Deposit (CD) Auctions.

Total bids amounted to $40.87 billion relative to the $31.50 billion issue size, implying a bid-to-offer ratio of 1.30x. While the previous week’s 1.80x bid-to-offer was higher, the bid and offer amounts were lower at $32.41 billion and $18.00 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, the average yield inched up to 5.89% from 5.85% the previous week. 

Additionally, the BOJ conducted a 14-day Repurchase Operation with deposit-taking institutions (DTIs), in the amount of $1.00 billion, with the total value of bids received amounting to $1.70 billion, implying a 1.7x bid-offer ratio. The weighted average yield was 6.26% – marginally higher than the 6.23% in the previous auction. 

The Government of Jamaica Treasury Bills (T-bills) offered by the Debt Management Branch, Ministry of Finance and the Public Service on December 3, 2025, were also oversubscribed. The amount applied for the 3-month T-bill was $1.63 billion (2.32x bid-offer), while the 6-month T-bill was J$1.78 billion (2.54x bid-offer). 

The average yields were 5.20% and 5.24% respectively, which were up from yields of 5.15% and 5.17% in the preceding auction results on October 8, 2025. The next auction date is January 7, 2026. In the meantime, liquidity in the JMD money market declined last week, as measured by the aggregated current balances held by DTIs. As at December 5, 2025, the total aggregate current balance amounted to J$53.86 billion, falling 4.4% compared to the previous week. 

FX market operations

In the Foreign Exchange Market, the local currency recorded a slight appreciation of 0.1% with the USD selling rate edging down from J$161.2 to J$161.1  There was no BOJ BFXITT intervention last week, however, the central bank is expected to continue augmenting hard currency supplies, especially in light of the projected increase in demand that is expected as Jamaica enters its rebuilding phase.