richard byles : jamaica's recent inflation performance and outlook statement by mr richard byles, governor of the bank of jamaica, to the standing finance committee of parliament, kingston, 23 july 2024. * * * good afternoon : bank of jamaica welcomes this opportunity to once again appear at the standing finance committee to discuss our conduct of monetary policy. the monetary policy report for the six - month period ending march 2024 was tabled in accordance with the bank of jamaica act. my remarks will largely be focussed on our recent policy decisions, which are aimed at fulfilling our primary mandate of price stability, as well as to update the committee on other relevant developments. recent monetary policy developments over the past three years, bank of jamaica ( boj ) has tightened monetary policy by utilising a three - pronged approach. specifically, the bank has : ( i ) increased the policy rate by 650 basis points to 7. 0 per cent, which resulted in small increases in dtis'loan rates and moderate increases in their deposit rates ; ( ii ) tightened jamaica dollar liquidity in the money market using our open market operations, which led to increases in private money market interest rates ; and ( iii ) utilised our foreign reserves to maintain relative stability in the foreign exchange market. this tight monetary policy stance was appropriate given that inflation had significantly increased from a low of 3. 8 per cent at april 2021 to a high of 11. 8 per cent at april 2022 and, thereafter, remained outside the target range of 4. 0 to 6. 0 per cent for several months. the bank's policy actions were designed to reduce inflation by constraining domestic aggregate demand and minimising the impact of imported inflation by inducing more stability in the foreign exchange market. the incoming data for inflation, inflation expectations, wage increases and the balance of payments suggest that there has been significant success in the fight against high inflation in jamaica. in this context, on 28 june 2024, bank of jamaica ( boj ) announced the monetary policy committee's ( mpc's ) decision to start a gradual easing of its monetary policy stance. the first step involves gradually reducing boj's absorption of liquidity from dtis through open market operations, thereby facilitating : ( a ) the channelling of additional credit to the productive sector ; and ( b ) gradual reductions in money market interest rates. however, the mpc decided to maintain the policy rate at 7. 0 % at this time and

brian wynter : economic issues and short - term trends for jamaica speech by mr brian wynter, governor of the bank of jamaica, at the quarterly press briefing, kingston, 10 november 2010. * * * ladies and gentlemen : this morning we are releasing the quarterly monetary policy report for the three months ended 30 september 2010. similar to the previous reports, we have outlined the economic developments that characterised the review quarter and some insights into the central bank ’ s view of the near - term. in addition, we have updated and reprinted some articles on issues which have been in the forefront of many discussions in recent months. these articles relate to the role of a credit bureau in enhancing the efficiency of credit markets as well as the bank ’ s role in preserving financial stability. review of the september 2010 quarter the process of transformation in the economy has largely continued in line with the objective of less volatility in domestic prices, lower interest rates and stable financial markets. indeed, economic developments in the september 2010 quarter were, in the main, positive. annual inflation continued to fall in line with expectations, interest rates trended down, the foreign exchange market was relatively stable, net international reserves increased substantially and the process of fiscal consolidation continued. however, real gdp is estimated to have continued to decline in the review quarter, albeit at a slower rate than in the june quarter. the bank is also estimating that the pace of recovery in the international economy slowed in the review quarter. monetary policy in the context of these developments, the bank continued to ease monetary policy in the review quarter. the bank ’ s actions continued to be supported by the strengthening of investor confidence, which has been reinforced by jamaica meeting successive performance targets under the stand - by arrangement with the international monetary fund. in this regard, the interest rate payable on the bank ’ s 30 - day certificate of deposit was reduced by an additional 1 - percentage point to 8. 00 per cent per annum during the quarter. the interest rate on overnight placements was also reduced by a quarter of a percentage point from an already very low 0. 5 per cent per annum. in addition, the bank reduced the cash reserve requirement on jamaica dollar prescribed liabilities of deposit taking institutions by 2 percentage points to 12 per cent and the liquid assets requirement also by 2 percentage points to 26 per cent. financial markets the foreign exchange market was relatively stable for the review quarter despite some demand pressures in september. this stability was evidenced by the marginal depreciation of 0