Commerce Minister says Days of Fretting Over Level of NIR ‘Long Gone’

“That time has gone.” That’s the word from Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator Aubyn Hill, concerning the country’s well documented anxieties about the level of its Net International Reserves, NIR.

The NIR represents a country’s total holdings of foreign assets like gold, foreign currencies, and securities minus its foreign liabilities like foreign debt.

According to the Bank of Jamaica, as at April 7, 2025, the country’s NIR stood at just under US$5.8 billion. That’s US$400 million more than the figure at the end of March.

The increased reserves provide the country with enough foreign exchange to import approximately 30 weeks of goods and services in the case of a major economic shock.

Minister Hill says Jamaica has been transformed from a debt-ridden country into one that has a stable fiscal regime.

Senator Aubyn Hill, Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce.

He was speaking at the Ministry’s Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Linkages Day on Tuesday at the University of Technology in St. Andrew.