Remittance flows up by 5.6%
BY STEVEN JACKSON
Business reporter
jacksons@jamaicaobserver.com
JAMAICA recorded its third-consecutive year of increased remittances since the Western financial crisis, due to flows from overseas workers, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) reasoned.
The island’s net remittances totaled US$1.92 billion in the 2014 calendar year, or 5.6 per cent higher than a year earlier.
“For the leisure and hospitality sectors, increased earnings driven by an expansion in the number of reported jobs held within this sector may have led to an expansion in gross remittance inflows to Jamaica,” stated the ‘Balance of Payments Remittance Report’ December 2014 published by the BOJ this week.
“For the education and health sectors, continued improvement in job prospects have resulted in a trend increase in the average weekly earnings, which may have contributed to an increase in gross remittances inflows from the United States recorded for the review period”.
Traditionally, remittance inflows to Jamaica are influenced by “trends” in earnings and employment in key sectors in which Jamaican workers are employed overseas.
The report added that employment of foreign and migrant workers in the US grew over the last six quarters.
“Given that the United States is the largest source of remittances to Jamaica, it is important to see the trends in earnings in key sectors in which Jamaican workers are employed,” the report explained.
The rise in Jamaica’s remittance inflows at US$2.15 billion (net remittances at US$1.92 b) paled in comparison to select peers, including Mexico up 9.6 per cent, Guatemala up 8.4 per cent and El Salvador up 6.6 per cent, the data indicated.
The island’s remittance inflows are usually rivaled only by tourism — at some US$2 billion — for the title of highest foreign exchange earner.
Over the calendar year, GraceKennedy Money Services (GKMS,) the exclusive remittance agents of Western Union, recorded a 16 per cent revenue rise to $6.4 billion. This translated to its after-tax profits jumping by one-third to $1.2 billion, according to financials at Grace Kennedy (GK,) its parent company.
Roughly half of Jamaica’s remittance inflows pass through GKMS, according to GK Chief Executive Don Wehby, in public statements made last November at a Stocks & Securities Limited investor forum in Kingston.
