Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Jamaican dollar money market liquidity dried up last week,  albeit with a modest decline.

Liquidity, as measured by the aggregated current balances held by Deposit-Taking Institutions (DTIs) went down to $46.20 billion from the previous week of $54.23 billion. Demand for Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) instruments remained firm last week, reflecting continued appetite for Jamaican-dollar liquidity management products. 

The BOJ’s 30-day Certificate of Deposit (CD) auction attracted $39.59Bn in bids against an offer of J$32.00 billion, resulting in a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.24x, down from 1.88x in the previous auction. The decline was driven by the disproportionately larger increase in the amount offered relative to demand. 

Specifically, the offer size increased by 113%, while total bids rose by only 40.5%. The next CD auction is today, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. 

The BOJ’s 14- day repurchase agreement auction received $3.00 billion in eligible bids against an offer of $2.50 billion (bid-to-cover ratio: 1.2x). The weighted average decreased by 37 bases to 5.61%.

Overall, the auction results suggest that Jamaican dollar liquidity conditions remain ample with investors continuing to deploy funds into BOJ instruments with short- term maturities, against the background of broadly stable yields.

FX market operations

On the foreign exchange (FX) operations last week, the Jamaican dollar appreciated by 0.39%, with the USD selling rate moving from J$159.20 to J$158.58. The strengthening of the Jamaican dollar was likely influenced by market expectations of the BOJ’s upcoming scheduled FX interventions on June 25 and 26, 2026, when the central bank is scheduled to inject at least US$60 million into the market. 

In anticipation of these sales, USD earners have increased their foreign currency supply, resulting in a market where sellers have outnumbered buyers, contributing to the appreciation of the Jamaican dollar.