Liquidity sufficient to oversubscribe auction of government securities

Durrant Pate/ Contributor

Liquidity in Jamaica’s money market, while contracting last week, was sufficient that auctions in government securities could have been oversubscribed.

The contraction was evident, as measured by the aggregated current balances held by Deposit-Taking Institutions (DTIs). As of last week, the figure dipped from the $72.65 billion reported the previous week.

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) 30-day Certificate of Deposit (CD) auction last week was oversubscribed with total bids received amounting to $36.51 billion for a total offer amount of $27.00 billion, implying a 1.35x bid-to-offer ratio. This represents a 23-basis-point (bps) increase from the previous week’s 1.12x ratio, as the offer size went down by 22.9% or J$8.00 billion. 

The average yield remained unchanged at 5.68%. The BOJ also conducted a 14-day repo auction on June 1, 2026, offering $2.50 billion in liquidity. The weighted average yield settled at 5.93%, a 2 bps increase compared with the prior auction’s average of 5.91%. 

Lastly, the Government of Jamaica released the results of its 3-month and 6-month Treasury bill (T-Bill) auctions, each with an offer size of $700 million. Investor demand remained strong with the 3-month T-Bill attracting bids of $2.09 billion with a bid-to-offer ratio of 2.99x.

The 6-month T-Bill received J$2.35 billion in bids, equivalent to a 3.35x bid-to-offer ratio. Both auctions recorded stronger demand than the previous offering on May 6, 2026. 

The next T-Bill auction is scheduled for Wednesday, July 8, 2026.

FX Market operations

In the foreign exchange (FX) market…The Jamaican dollar appreciated by 0.2% against the USD with the weighted average selling rate for US$1 decreasing from J$158.44 to $158.10 last Friday. The BOJ intervened twice in the FX market on June 4 and 5, selling a total of US$60 million through its B-FXITT flash sales. 

The total sale amount, however, was significantly below the US$314.47 million received in total bids, indicating a high level of demand for USD. Looking ahead, the BOJ announced that it will inject additional US dollar liquidity into the foreign exchange market through its B-FXITT Standard Sale Operation scheduled for June 25–26, 2026. 

The amount to be offered will be disclosed on the day prior to the auction.