The country’s Net International Reserves, NIR, have reached another record high.
The latest information provided by the Bank of Jamaica, BOJ, on Tuesday shows that the NIR is just under US $5.8 billion.
This puts the country’s reserves significantly above the required international benchmark, as the country heads into a new financial year.
Mahiri Stewart tells us more.
The Net International Reserves, NIR, represent a country’s total holdings of foreign assets like gold, foreign currencies, and securities minus its foreign liabilities like foreign debt.
According to the Bank of Jamaica, as at April 7, 2025, the country’s NIR stands at five-billion-seven-hundred-and-eighty-five-million US dollars.
This figure is up from five-billion-four-hundred-and-73 million US dollars the Central bank held in reserve in March.
That’s an increase of more than three-hundred-and-12 million US dollars.
The five-point-seven billion US dollars is over nine hundred twelve billion Jamaican dollars.
For comparison that’s just four-hundred-billion dollars shy of the one-point-3-trillion dollar national budget for the current fiscal year.
The BOJ currently holds five-point-8-billion US dollars in currency and deposits.
That’s an increase of three-hundred-and-three-million US dollars compared to February.
It also has just over 40-million US dollars in foreign liabilities.
This is down from 49-million US dollars the month prior.
The increased reserves provide the country with enough foreign exchange to import approximately 30 weeks of goods and services in the case of a major economic shock.
It’s also just short of one hundred and forty-percent of the asset reserve adequacy international benchmark.
This is a seven-percentage-point improvement over February.