Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke is heralding Jamaica’s healthy reserves, as he gave his assessment of the domestic economy during his Budget Debate presentation in Parliament on Tuesday (March 12).

At present, Jamaica’s net international reserves (NIR) stand at US$4.7 billion, which Clarke trumpets is a milestone higher than any period in the past. 

According to him, “At some point in the near future, our foreign exchange reserves will pass the US$5.0 billion mark for the first time. We have come a long, long way. As a reminder, Madam Speaker, in 1980, Jamaica had negative foreign exchange reserves. In fact, an economic fact that has not been sufficiently internalised, is that for the entire period 1976 to 1993 – a period of 17 years – Jamaica had consistently negative net international reserves.”

He told the legislature that an adequate supply of foreign currency reserves is a signal to suppliers of goods and services to Jamaica that they will get paid. 

“Jamaica’s Central Bank has enough foreign exchange on hand that should there be a major disruption in the supply of foreign exchange to Jamaica, we would still be able to find foreign exchange to pay our overseas supplier bills as they come due. The usefulness of a healthy foreign exchange reserves was thoroughly tested during COVID-19 when Jamaica lost US$4 billion of foreign exchange inflows!” Clarke asserted.

He reiterated that unlike previous foreign exchange supply shocks, the pandemic did not precipitate a crisis in foreign exchange position, noting that Jamaica was able to endure the foreign exchange supply shock, still import goods and services from overseas and pay those bills, as they came due, ”all because we had a high level of foreign exchange reserves.”

He expressed his pride in the government’s commitment and successful efforts to build up the country’s foreign exchange reserves to the highest level in history and to provide a buffer that serves the best interests of the people of Jamaica.