KINGSTON, Jamaica — Total assets held by Jamaica’s commercial banks was $2 592.7 billion at the end of December, 2024.

This represents an increase of 5.1 per cent in nominal terms and 0.1 per cent in real terms when compared with the end of December 2023.

The information is outlined in the 2024 edition of the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica, an annual publication of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).

According to the PIOJ, the expansion in total assets was driven by real increases in Loans & Advances, by 0.9 per cent to $1 358.3 billion, and the category ‘Other’, by 2.5 per cent to $603.8 billion.

“Loans & Advances represented the largest share of total assets at 52.4 per cent, an increase of 0.4 percentage point,” the PIOJ said.

It said the stock of Loans & Advances to the Goods Producing Industry was $117.7 billion, decreasing by 6.4 per cent in nominal terms and 10.8 per cent in real terms. This was due to lower loan uptake in all sub-industries in real terms led by Mining (44.3 per cent) and Construction & Land Development (14.0 per cent).

Loans & Advances to the Services Industry totaled $442.3 billion, a rise of 3.9 per cent in nominal terms and a decline of 1.0 per cent in real terms.

The PIOJ said six of the nine sub-industries recorded real declines with the largest being recorded for Financial Institutions (32.1 per cent), Electricity, Gas & Water (16.6 per cent) and Food & Beverage Services (16.5 per cent).

Loans & Advances for productive purposes of $550.2 billion was 40.5 per cent of the total stock of Loans & Advances, a decline of 1.7 percentage points compared with December 2023. The stock of Loans & Advances to individuals and households increased nominally by 9.3 per cent to $798.3 billion, representing in real terms an increase of 4.1 per cent.

Of note is that the share of loans to individuals and households relative to total loans increased by 1.8 percentage points to 58.2 per cent.