16 months without any auction

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) will again not conduct its regular 14-day Repurchase Operations (Repo) for this week.

In an advisory today (January 30), the Jamaican Central Bank advises that, “it will not be conducting its 14-Day Repurchase Operation for the week of January 30 to February 3 and therefore there will be no auction. The next auction for 14-day repurchases is scheduled for February 6.

This brings to 16 months since the BOJ has not carried out any repo auction. The last 14-day repo auction was carried out on October 11, 2021, where successful bids totalling J$10.0 billion were allocated at a weighted average rate of 4.91 per cent. 

Since August 2021 inflation has remained above the upper limit of the BOJ’s target range (4.0% – 6.0%). Consequently, one of the measures taken by the BOJ to restore inflation to the target range and the short-term outlook for inflation was to not offer any 14-day repo in an effort to contain Jamaican dollar liquidity expansion.

Notwithstanding the absence of the 14-day repo auction, Deposit-Taking Institutions DTIs can access overnight liquidity daily via the Overnight/ Standard Liquidity Facility at a predetermined rate.