OVERVIEW
- GOJ’s fiscal outturn YTD for the 2020/21 fiscal year showed revenues above budget by $9.72B and expenditures coming out below budget by 5.69B as at September 30, 2020. The YTD fiscal balance was negative $61.29B vs. budget of negative $76.71B.
- The Jamaican economy declined by 18.4 per cent in Q2 of 2020 when compared to the similar 2019 period. This resulted from declines in the Services industries (down 20.3% and the Goods producing industries (down by 12.7%). The novel Corona virus 2019 was the main cause of this result along with drought conditions which affected agriculture and the closure of mining and quarrying co. Alpart and Jiuquan Iron and Steel Co. (JISCO).
- The BOJ policy (overnight lending) rate remained unchanged at 0.50% in October since its last reduction (from 0.75%) in August 2019.
- The Jamaican dollar lost $3.09 against the US$ during the month to end at US$1: J$145.1981. Over the past 12 months, the JAD has lost $5.08 or 3.62% against the USD.
- The NIR decreased by US$145.81M to US$2,893.31M. This represents 36.70 weeks of goods and services imports.
- Inflation for the month of September 2020 was 0.2 per cent. For calendar year-to-date, the rate was 3.6 percent and the fiscal year-to-date was 2.3 per cent. The point to point rate (year over year) was 4.9 percent.
- The Jamaica Stock Exchange main index ended October at 375,386.38 points, a decrease of 5,039.60 points or 1.32% over September. Year to date, the index has lost 26.38%.
- Crude oil price declined by US$4.43 or 11.01% during October to US$35.79 per barrel.
- The US economy added 638,000 jobs in October. The rate of unemployment fell to 6.9%. The improvement in the labour market reflects the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the corona virus pandemic.
READ THE FULL DOCUMENT HERE