OVERVIEW
- GOJ’s fiscal outturn YTD for the 2021/22 fiscal year recorded revenues above budget by $17.31B and expenditures underbudget by $9.69B as at August 31, 2021. The YTD fiscal balance was reported at negative $14.82B vs. budget of negative $41.82B.
- In an attempt to curtail inflation, the BOJ policy (overnight lending) rate increased by 100bps to 1.50% in September 2021. The Central Bank hinted at an increase at the next policy decision announcement that is set for November 16, 2021.
- The JA dollar appreciated by $4.85 against the US dollar during the month to end at US$1: J$147.24. Over the past 12 months, the JAD has slid $5.14 or 3.62% against the USD.
- The NIR increased by US$75M or 1.94% to US$3,964.2M. The current level represents 46.62 weeks of goods and services imports and 146.37 percentage of ARA Metric.
- Inflation for the month of August 2021 increased by 0.90 per cent. The calendar year-to-date was 4.70 per cent while the point-to-point rate (year over year) was 6.1 per cent. The point-to-point rate has breached the BOJ’s targeted inflation range of 4%-6%.
- The Jamaica Stock Exchange main index ended September at 414,889.96, a decrease of 2,974.95 points or 0.71% over August. Year to date, the index has advanced 4.87%.
- Crude oil price increased by US$6.53 or 9.53% during September 2021 to US$75.03 per barrel.
- US unemployment rate declined by 0.4% to 4.8% as nonfarm payroll jobs reported by the US Labor Department for September 2021 totalled 194,000. Notable job gains were recorded in the leisure and hospitality industry, primarily in arts, entertainment, and recreation. Other sectors experiencing significant gains included professional and business services (+60,000), retail trade (+56,000), and transportation and warehousing (+47,000)
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