The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) says credit extended to private-sector businesses and households by commercial banks, merchant banks and building societies has increased by 15.2 per cent over the 12-month period ending March 2019. Governor Brian Wynter says this is 1.4 per cent higher than the 13.8 per cent out-turn for the corresponding period last year. He was speaking at...

Government of Jamaica pensioners will have more time to complete and hand in their life certificates to the Accountant General’s Department (AGD). “We are sending out the life certificates one month earlier than before, so that you get two months to return them,” Director of Communication and Customer Relations at the AGD, Tanisha Weir Grant, told JIS News. She said...

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has announced that, effective today (Monday, May 20), additional information on daily foreign exchange market transactions will be posted on its website. This decision, according to the BOJ, is intended to foster “greater transparency” in relation to large US-dollar transactions by authorised foreign exchange dealers and cambios and improve public access to market information. “The...

The public is invited to the Financial Services Commission (FSC) Town Hall Meeting to be held at the Cecil Charlton Hall, Hargreaves Avenue in Mandeville, Manchester, on Tuesday, May 21, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Communications and Public Education Officer at the FSC, Toni-Ann Bryson, told JIS News that the town hall meeting is part of a drive by the FSC...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has allocated approximately $67 million (US$500,000) to support the youth component of the Improved Safety and Security in Schools Programme in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information. The two-year programme, which began in July 2017 and is slated to end in July 2019, is valued at US$3 million. It is being...

Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says additional reforms being accelerated by the Government to improve Jamaica’s global competitiveness should serve to further boost the country’s ranking on the World Bank Doing Business Report Index. He said despite Jamaica improving 16 places on the Index to be ranked the most competitive Caribbean country with which...

Executive Director of the Public Investment Management Secretariat (PIMSEC), Douglas Levermore, says that the Government retains ownership of the country’s assets under public-private Ppartnership (PPP) arrangements. “In the PPP modality, the Government still owns the assets, so this notion of a sell-out of the particular government interest is not founded in reality…the State’s assets may be concessioned to an experienced...