Bank of Jamaica increases efforts to stimulate inflation

The Bank of Jamaica will lower its reserve requirements for banks in an effort to spur credit growth, governor Brian Wynter announced in a speech on February 21.

The central bank also cut its policy rate on February 20, hoping the combination of interventions will bring inflation back to target more quickly.

Jamaican banks’ reserve requirements will be reduced by 3 percentage points to 9%, effective from March 1, in the first of a series of planned cuts. The reduction should release nearly $17