The Bank of Jamaica said it booked a $6.9-billion loss in the eight months to August, driven mainly by writedowns and currency movements.
“The losses year to date have arisen primarily from unrealised revaluation losses on the foreign assets in the foreign reserve portfolio,” stated a response from the BOJ. “[Also] unrealised foreign currency losses arising from the strengthening of the Jamaican dollar against the US dollar during the current financial year.”
Neither is a cash loss. The bulk of the central bank’s assets sit in foreign currency, a firmer Jamaican dollar reduces their value when translated back into local currency, even where the underlying holdings are untouched.
It only takes a few cents to result in a vast revaluation figure, as the Jamaica dollar appreciated against the US dollar from $159.47 in January to $159.27 in August. It is a trend that gained pace from $160.88 in August 2025.
“Despite the 2026 year-to-date losses, the bank remains adequately capitalised for the purposes of satisfying its price stability mandate,” the central bank said.
The loss surfaced in the balance sheet published on Wednesday, September 9, which showed negative retained earnings as at August 26. A year earlier, retained earnings stood at a positive $19.12 billion — a swing of roughly $26 billion between the two dates. The bank reported no distributable profits to hand to the Government, against $401 million a year earlier. Capital fell 10.5 per cent to $56.9 billion from $63.6 billion.
The central bank pushed back on any reading of the result as a trading failure, pointing to the terms of its own statute.
“Bank of Jamaica is a creature of statute and under the Bank of Jamaica Act, it has two main objectives, which are to maintain price stability and maintain financial system stability,” the bank said.
Central banks are therefore not driven by a profit motive, although, as public-sector bodies, they will always strive to effectively discharge their mandates in the most efficient manner possible, the BOJ added.
The wider balance sheet expanded over the year. Total assets reached $1.31 trillion, up 6.5 per cent from $1.23 trillion, with foreign assets of $1.06 trillion accounting for just over four-fifths of the total. Notes and coins in circulation rose 12.3 per cent to $313.5 billion.
Two liability lines moved sharply. Open market instruments, which the bank issues to absorb Jamaican-dollar liquidity from the financial system, fell 25 per cent to $254.7 billion from $339.85 billion. Public-sector deposits at the central bank rose 82.5 per cent to $244.58 billion from J$134.04 billion.
The bank’s financial year runs January to December.
business@gleanerjm.com
