Jitters in the foreign exchange market, especially over the past three weeks, have pushed the value of the Jamaican dollar to a new low, with Jamaicans now having to shell out nearly $142 on average to buy one US dollar.
But the Bank of Jamaica, BOJ, says the market conditions driving the currency down, though outside the norm, are linked to known factors that would soon abate. “We understand the reasons behind it and we expect these impulses to subside, and what you might call normalcy ought to return to the market,” said Senior BOJ Deputy Governor John Robinson.
In the 24 trading days between October 2 and November 5, the weighted average selling rate of the Jamaican dollar moved from $134.80 to a new low of $141.10, a depreciation of $6.30 or 4.6 per cent.
By Thursday, the JMD had depreciated even further to a fresh new low of $141.89. The more the rate of exchange increases, the lower the value of the Jamaican dollar against its US trading counterpart. “We do know that one of the reasons behind the imbalance between demand and supply at this time is the presence of some extraordinary demand for portfolio purposes, which we expect to pass,” Robinson told the Financial Gleaner earlier Wednesday.
“We’ve been in close communication with dealers and cambios and we think we have a handle on it,“ he said. The central banker did not go into specifics, but one of the known events pending is a US$240-million pay out that JMMB Group is expected to make to Alignvest for a 22 per cent stake in regional insurer Sagicor Financial.
No comments:
Post a Comment