interest rates also continued to decline in the quarter. the weighted average yield on the 1 - month, 3 - month and 6 - month treasury bills declined by 78 basis points, 35 basis points and 51 basis points, respectively to 7. 48 per cent, 7. 40 per cent and 7. 48 per cent at the auctions in the december 2010. yields have continued to decline falling by an average of 2 basis points at the auctions in january, with all tenors significantly oversubscribed. the external community has also continued to demonstrate its confidence in jamaica ’ s creditworthiness. average yields on jamaican sovereign bonds have fallen from about 10. 50 per cent at the end of january last year – just before the implementation of the jamaica voluntary debt exchange ( jdx ) – to 7. 57 per cent at the end of january this year. bis central bankers ’ speeches this occurred in the context of a fall of about 2 percentage points in the average spread between jamaican sovereign bonds and us treasury bonds – an indication that investors perceive a meaningful reduction in the risks associated with investing in jamaican securities. when compared with other emerging markets, jamaica ’ s bonds have also performed well. the spread between jamaican sovereign bonds and the benchmark emerging market bond index ( known as the embi ) fell by more than 3 percentage points over the course of 2010. also reflective of the increasing confidence about the near - term prospects for the economy, the foreign exchange market was relatively stable for the december quarter. in this context, there was a marginal appreciation of 0. 45 per cent in the weighted average selling rate of the jamaica dollar for the review period. this was in comparison to average depreciation of 3. 0 per cent for the last five december quarters. for the calendar year 2010, the value of the jamaica dollar appreciated by 4. 4 per cent against the us dollar. this was in contrast to the depreciation of 10. 2 per cent in 2009. the appreciation in the value of the domestic currency in the quarter was associated with increased net private capital inflows which were more than sufficient to offset the impact of increased demand to satisfy payments for current account transactions. in the context of this excess supply of foreign currency in the market, the bank made net purchases of us $ 51. 9 million during the quarter. these purchases along with the purchase from government of the proceeds of a us $ 200. 0 million loan from the inter - american development bank, contributed to an increase of us $ 197

mechanism. earlier in the cycle, the bank observed different degrees of pass - through of its policy actions to lending and deposit rates of dtis and the non - bank sector, with the former instituting relatively small adjustments to deposit and lending rates. we expected deposit and lending rates to respond to the increase in the policy rate with a 1 to 3 months lag after the policy adjustments and the pass - through to range between 40 % and 90 % over the period. in contrast, deposit rates and lending rates have responded marginally to the bank's 650 bps policy adjustment. at february 2024, weighted average deposits increased by only 145 bps while time deposits increased by 370 bps. weighted average private sector loans increased by just 40 bps. our research has shown that the source of the weakness in the credit channel is primarily due to the concentrated nature of the banking system. this is evidenced by the dominance of two major network banks, which allows them to pay low deposit rates while maintaining their profit even when subjected to monetary policy changes. in addition, given the time - consuming process of switching financial interests from one private financial institution to another due to know your customer ( kyc ) requirements, customers may become discouraged from changing institutions even if they believe they are not receiving the best prices and / or services. this then constrains deposit portability. notwithstanding the general weakness in the credit channel, we have observed a positive response of domestic inflation to the bank's tightened policy posture. since its peak at april 2022 of 11. 8 %, annual point - to - point inflation has been on a general downward trajectory, moderating to 6. 2 % at february and 5. 6 % at march 2024. this downward trend occurred in the context of lower imported prices, supported by stable exchange rate and tight jamaica dollar liquidity conditions. the policy rate has remained stable at 7 % since november 2022, but the tight liquidity management has led to persistently high money market rates. the financial system, however, remains stable and able to withstand shocks. dtis are well capitalised, asset quality relatively stable and provisioning by the system adequate. conclusion as i close, it is imperative that we improve the transmission system of the country. jamaica has been exploring deposit portability and open banking as strategies aimed at improving competition in intermediation. boj has engaged with the world bank for support, and we are in the process of developing a policy framework to promote and regulate an