Liquidity in Jamaica’s money market has increased marginally based on the latest aggregated current balances held by Deposit-Taking Institutions (DTIs) at the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ).

As at May 1, 2025, the total aggregate DTI’s current balance at the BOJ amounted to J$73.04 billion, marking a 2.03% increase compared to the previous week. 

Demand for money market instruments softened, as reflected in the level of oversubscription of both the Bank of Jamaica’s weekly 30-day Certificate of Deposit (CD) auction and its 14-day Repo auction. The bid-to-offer ratio on the weekly CD auction declined from 1.79x to 1.03x. 

This softening was driven by a sharp drop in total bids received, J$27.0 billion last week compared to J$45.0 billion the week before. Meanwhile, the average yield on the 30-day CD continued to edge upward, rising to 5.89%, up from 5.72% in the prior auction. 

Repo and T-bills auctions

Despite limited participation, 14-day repo auctions were oversubscribed last week. Only two eligible bids were received, totalling J$900.0 million, against an offer of J$800.0 million, resulting in a bid-to-offer ratio of 1.13x. 

The weighted average interest rate stood at 6.03%, one basis point higher than the last auction occurring on April 17, 2025. The Government of Jamaica has announced a new auction to offer a total of J$2.2 billion in T-bills to the market. 

There will be three tenors on offer with sizes of J$700 million for 91-day and 182-day tenors, respectively, and J$800 million for a 273-day tenor. The subscription date for the auction was Wednesday, May 7, and settlement was Friday, May 9.

FX market operations

In the Foreign Exchange market, the Jamaican dollar depreciated by 0.23% last week, with the USD selling rate increasing from J$159.11 to J$159.47. The week-over-week depreciation occurred despite softer demand, though still high relative to the supply, and market resistance to higher prices as the exchange rate approaches the J$160.00 level. 

While there were no Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) B-FXITT operations since April 11, 2025, end-users are hopeful of an intervention in the coming weeks to cushion the persistent depreciation observed over the last few weeks.