offer size. this limit helps to make smaller dealers and participating cambios more competitive and puts pressure on larger institutions to improve their margins and the quality of their service in order to keep their market share. additional measures will be implemented to improve the service delivery of dealers to end users, including limits 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches on the size of open positions dealers are allowed to take and the adoption of a foreign exchange market code of conduct governing the behaviour of intermediaries with their customers. all that is required from you, the end - user, is that you provide your dealer with good information about your foreign currency demand and supply over a four - week horizon. that information helps to inform us about what supply or demand augmentation may be needed. however, please be aware that it is not, as i have been hearing in some reports, an order that you are placing for your share of the intervention funds. therefore, b - fxitt is designed to foster more competitive behaviour amongst authorised dealers and cambios, rewarding the dealers who provide the best service and margins to customers and disadvantaging those who do not. how well this will work to your benefit, as with all consumer - oriented measures in competitive markets, depends on you. are you reaping your rewards by getting the best service and margins from your dealer, whether you are selling or buying us dollars, pounds or euros, or even renminbi? speaking of disadvantaging those who make poor decisions, during the month of may this year, before b - fxitt was introduced, boj intervened in the market with sales of us $ 240 million despite all indications that there was adequate supply. we sold those funds at over j $ 130. 00. perhaps you heard about this. we bought back most of it in the months that followed and at cheaper rates closer to j $ 129. 00. someone lost millions of jamaican dollars on a bad bet but i would not be surprised if you never heard about that. since the introduction of b - fxitt, market participants apparently failed to learn from the experience and failed to pay attention to the increase in available information. during august, in the face of moderate movements in the exchange rate, net demand pressures began to build up in the system. by september, some people lost their nerve, aided, i am sure, by another unhealthy dose of fear - mongering designed to support passionate exhortations for the

2. 0 per cent of gdp, which, for jamaica, is well within the range that is considered to be sustainable. for fy2017 / 18 and into the mediumterm future, the current account deficit is projected to remain sustainable in the range of 1. 0 per cent to 3. 0 per cent of gdp. with imports financed by foreign direct investment at around 3. 0 per cent to 4. 0 per cent of gdp each year, fy2017 / 18 will be the third year in a row where current account transactions will place no net pressure on the foreign exchange market. this has not occurred since the 1960's. now let me address an issue raised by one or two economic observers who speak of a central bank depreciation policy that has never worked and will never work for jamaica. they state that it only leads to a worsening of the economy. first, the central bank does not have a depreciation policy. the government's policy is for there to be a flexible market - determined rate, which means that the price of us dollars will change based on supply and demand conditions like any good. jamaica has postponed adjustments in the past through borrowing. but we need only glance at our history or study the current experience of some of our neighbours to remind us of the consequences of trying to dictate an exchange rate that is at odds with underlying economic or market conditions. second, there is no debate that depreciation benefits exporters and hurts importers. therefore, if a larger proportion of businesses in the economy are importers then certainly business in a country will at first suffer when depreciation occurs. improvement for business comes later from a change in behaviour that leads to a reduction in the proportion of import - dependent businesses. numerous media reports suggest that the change in behaviour is occurring as businesses that were once uncompetitive are now able to produce profitably for the domestic market or penetrate export markets. they have been replacing foreign inputs with local substitutes or importing raw materials and finishing the goods locally before using them in their productive processes. those companies must have contributed to the more than 30, 000 net new jobs created last year and more than 20, 000 created this year. 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches therefore, if for the first time in our independent history we can sustainably earn enough to pay our bills instead of perpetually borrowing ; if we are seeing high - quality exports of goods and services and competitive import substitution ;