Durrant Pate/ Contributor

Inflows into Jamaica’s foreign exchange (FX) market have seen a tapering off with the end of summer, according to NCB Capital Market in its latest market guide for this week.

This tapering off should continue into the short term, with heightened demand for the Jamaican dollar from local retailers preparing for the Christmas season. The local currency depreciated by 0.17% relative to the USD  week over week, with the “greenback” selling rate moving from J$161.34 to J$161.62. 

In the money Market, liquidity in the JMD money market increased last week, as measured by the aggregated current balances held by Deposit-Taking Institutions (DTIs). As at October 10, 2025, the total aggregate current balance amounted to J$73.53Bn, marking a 12.0% rise compared to the previous week. 

Demand for money market instruments remains strong, as evidenced by the oversubscription in the Bank of Jamaica’s (BOJ’s) weekly 30-day Certificate of Deposit (CD) Auctions. Total bids amounted to J$42.24 billion relative to the J$31.50 billion issue size, implying a bid-to-offer ratio of 1.34x. While the previous week’s 1.93x bid-to-offer was higher, the bid and offer amounts were lower at J$26.94 billion and J$14.00 billion, respectively. 

The average yield on the 30-day CD auction inched up to 5.92% from 5.89% the previous week. The next auction date is today, October 15. Additionally, the BOJ conducted a 14-day Repurchase Operation with DTIs in the amount of J$1.00 billion. The total value of bids received was $1.50 billion, implying a 1.5x bid-offer ratio. The weighted average yield was 6.26% – marginally higher than the 6.23% in the previous auction.

Meanwhile, oversubscriptions for Government of Jamaica (GOJ) Treasury Bills (T-bills) were provided by the Debt Management Branch of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. All tenors (the 3-month, 6-month, and 9-month) bills, each with J$700.00 million offer sizes, were oversubscribed. The amount applied for the 3-month T-bill totalled J$1.36 billion (1.94x bid-offer), the 6-month T-bill totalled J$2.43 billion (2.43x bid-offer) and the 9-month T-bill J$3.22 billion (4.03x bid-offer) with average yields of 5.15%, 5.17% and 5.44%, respectively.

This was down from yields of 5.20%, 5.24% and 5.33% in the preceding auction results.