THE Jamaican dollar continued to depreciate, sinking to an all-time low last week in spite of intervention by the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ). The central bank last Friday pumped US$40 million into the local foreign exchange market.

The dollar closed the trading week last Friday at $156.78 to US$1. That was a new all-time low. At the start of the week, the US currency was being sold for an average $156.71, which was itself an all-time low. This means the dollar would have declined by $0.07 for the week and therefore depreciated by 0.04 per cent, relative to the US week over week.

 

The depreciation was primarily due to strong demand and weak supply, which prompted the BOJ to intervene in the market. This has been in line with the trend seen for the past three years, where the local currency would depreciate in January.

 

NCB Capital Markets reported in its weekly market guide that, “the BOJ had B-FXITT (BOJ Foreign Exchange Intervention and Trading Tool) auctions totalling US$70 million this week, which reduced JMD (Jamaican dollar) liquidity in the market through the sale of USD (American dollar).”

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-observer/dollar-depreciation-continues_242930