JAMAICA’S gross international reserves swelled to a record US$5.23 billion at the end of March as the Bank of Jamaica’s (BOJ) holding of foreign currency/deposits rose by the most in a single month. The net international reserves are also at a record above US$5.14 billion despite a drawdown of US$15 million to repay International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans in the month.

“This should not go unnoticed,” Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke wrote on his
X (formerly Twitter) account Monday. “For the first time, Jamaica’s net international reserves [have] passed the US$5-billion mark,” he continued as he highlighted the achievement.

Clarke went on to explain the necessity of having the reserves by pointing to the country’s history of “chronic economic vulnerability, volatility, and distress that, in large part, arise from having insufficient foreign exchange reserves in our central bank”.

Gross international reserves are the total holdings of a country’s central bank that are readily available for intervention in the foreign exchange market to address balance of payments needs or to influence exchange rates. They typically include foreign currencies held by the central bank, securities, the special drawing rights (SDRs)
— the IMF’s own reserve currency, a country’s quota of funds that can be immediately withdrawn from the IMF and, in some countries, gold reserves.

“Being of [a] small size while having an open economy with a liberalised foreign exchange regime makes it imperative that Jamaica has strong levels of foreign exchange reserves if we also want economic growth and development and we want to be economically resilient and more economically independent,” Clarke noted.