The Bank of  Jamaica (BoJ),is reporting that currency take up during the holiday period was weaker than expected.
The central bank projected that financial institutions would take up about $7.3 billion.
However, during the last five work days of  December the BoJ issued only $2.9 billion  to financial institutions.
There is normally a stronger demand for currency during December due to increased spending.
As a result, financial institutions would request more currency from the Central Bank to satisfy this demand.
However, this year the demand fell to the lowest in more than a decade.