Finally, they are meant to assure people that inflation in the future will not continue to rise unpredictably and so allow them to act today in ways that are consistent with the maintenance of low, stable and predictable inflation in the future. They are also meant to reduce demand in the economy and consequently, the ability of businesses to pass on price increases to consumers. These actions are intended to soften the impact on consumers, of the large changes in the prices of oil, grains and other imported commodities, through the exchange rate channel. Finally, the use of open market operations, which involves Bank of Jamaica issuing certificates of deposits to banks, removes liquidity from the system, causing money market interest rates to rise and influencing inflation downward.Selling US dollars also removes Jamaican dollars from the financial system, which causes a premium to be placed on Jamaican dollar liquidity by the participants in the system and reduces demand-induced inflationary pressures. The timely sale of foreign exchange to the market when there are temporary gaps between supply and demand is also aimed at stabilizing the market while at the same time preserving the Government of Jamaica's flexible exchange rate system.Make savings in Jamaican dollars more attractive relative to foreign currency assets and thus help to maintain the stability of the exchange rate.Cause interest rates on deposits and loans in the financial system to rise, which will then encourage savings and discourage borrowing in Jamaican dollars, and hence help to manage aggregate spending in the economy.This package of mutually reinforcing policy measures is meant to achieve the following outcomes: Ensuring the maintenance of tight Jamaica dollar liquidity conditions in the money market.The provision of US dollar liquidity support to the foreign exchange market to foster stability in the foreign exchange market and,.Gradual increases in the Bank's policy interest rate by 650 basis points since October 2021.Therefore, since October last year, Bank of Jamaica has used a three-pronged approach to address the problem of high inflation in Jamaica. Monetary tightening among Jamaica's main trading partners has also continued at a rapid pace, which carries the risk of increased capital outflows from Jamaica and a faster pace of exchange rate depreciation, if domestic monetary policy is not correctly aligned. In addition, core inflation, which excludes from the CPI (Consumer Price Index), the impact of fuel and food prices, is high at 9% when compared with 8.4 per cent at December 2021. While some of the key drivers of headline inflation, such as grains and shipping prices, continue to trend downwards on the world markets, we are not yet seeing the full pass-through to domestic food prices. This outturn was also higher than the inflation rate of 7.3% at December 2021 but has been declining slowly since April 2022 when it was 11.8%. Headline inflation at October 2022, as reported by STATIN, was 9.9%, which continued to trend above the upper limit of the Bank's inflation target of 4 to 6%. The shock has however contributed to significant increases in both inflation and inflation expectations here in Jamaica and across the world, which makes inflation a source of ongoing concern for Bank of Jamaica. Notwithstanding this adverse development, the domestic economy continues to show signs of strong recovery, our foreign reserves are robust and employment is at pre-COVID levels. I also take this opportunity to wish all the members of this Honourable House and your families a safe and happy Christmas when it comes.īy way of context for my remarks, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has amplified substantial increases in international commodity prices. Thank you for the opportunity to have Bank of the Jamaica report to this Honourable House on its recent stewardship of monetary policy.
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