Spending over the holiday season wasn’t as robust as anticipated, based on data coming out of the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ).

The BOJ has reported that growth in currency stock for December 2019 fell below its projected target, reflecting a decline in currency issued —the lowest growth in a December month within the last 10 years.

During the last five working days of December 2019 (December 23-31), data from the BOJ shows that net currency for the period to financial institutions (commercial banks, building societies and cambios) grew by $2.94 billion. There is normally a stronger demand for currency during the month of December, associated with increased spending over the holiday period. As such, financial institutions would request more currency from BOJ to satisfy this demand. In spite of the $2.94-billion growth in money circulated for the last five days of December, this was below the bank’s projection for the period of $7.37 billion as well as below the average growth of $4.58 billion over the past five years.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sunday-finance/holiday-spending-below-expectations-boj-data-reveals-may-be-partially-due-to-greater-internet-and-credit-card-purchases_183726