Shaw Warns Public Sector Against Hoarding Foreign Exchange

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, has warned public sector entities against holding on to foreign exchange and contributing to the pressure on the local currency.
“We have too many public sector bodies that are out there competing for dollars in an uncoordinated way. We are going to draw them up. We are going to straighten them out on that one. We cannot afford to have Public Sector bodies holding on to foreign exchange and won’t sell it into the market, and I am sending this warning to them, I am not going to tolerate it”, the Finance Minister stated.
He was speaking on Wednesday (January 28), at the official opening of the Fourth Regional Conference on Investments and Capital Markets, at the Rose Hall Resort and Country Club, in Montego Bay, St. James. The conference is staged annually by the Jamaica Stock Exchange. This year’s conference was held under the theme, “Competition or Collaboration.”
In a wide ranging address, Mr. Shaw touched on the topic of the exchange rate and the continuing pressure on the local currency which, he said, were of great concern to him and his Ministry.
He said that the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar was due, in part, to some amount of demand present, but that the problem was largely due to the fact that demand is uncoordinated.
He said that the country’s treasury is not being managed adequately. Both the Governor of the Central Bank, Derick Latibeaudiere, and the Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry, Senator Don Wehby, have been asked to evaluate the present system of treasury management.