2 months ago
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The closure of some remittance stores during the passage of Hurricane Beryl was blamed for the slowdown of inflows in July, according to new data released by the central bank.
Remittance inflows fell in July by nearly 5.0 per cent to US$289 million from US$303 million for the same period in the previous year.
“Hurricane Beryl impacted locations in three parishes – St Elizabeth, Manchester, and Clarendon,” stated Don Wehby, group CEO of GraceKennedy, which operates the franchise for Western Union – a large remittance provider.
“It took us approximately two weeks to get back to full capacity in those parishes.”
Wehby said that GK “lost some transactions” without a commensurate recovery surge, at least to date. GK historically services roughly half of the remittance market.
“We did not see the uplift that we usually get when there is a hurricane. This, we assume, is because only three parishes were impacted and not the entire island,” he said.
He, however, added that since August remittances through its network have inched higher year on year.
“We have seen a recovery with US dollar inflows surpassing August 2023 by over 6.0 per cent,” Wehby said.
A key source from Lasco Financial indicated that they had not seen any noticeable dip in remittance in July. Lasco represents Moneygram and Ria remittance services.
Marginal decline
Remittances account for the second-highest inflows to Jamaica, after tourism. Remittances are funds sent as gifts to persons in other countries. It mostly reflects money movements from developed nations with large diaspora populations or migrant communities that support households at home.
The bulk of the transfers to Jamaica emanated from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Cayman Islands.
The Bank of Jamaica, BOJ, indicated that while Jamaica’s remittance inflows declined over the year-to-date period, down 0.6 per cent, its peers in Guatemala climbed 7.0 per cent, and Mexico grew 4.0 per cent. El Salvador, however, dipped 0.4 per cent.
Remittances fell in five of the seven months in which data was available. Year-over-year remittances fell 1.1 per cent in January, 1.3 per cent in March, 1.0 per cent in May, 2.8 per cent in June, and 4.7 per cent in July.
Jamaica had record remittance inflows of US$3.5 billion in 2021, amid COVID-19 pandemic-related changes within the market that served to channel money through formal remittance channels counted by the Bank of Jamaica. At the time, overseas relatives sent funds to support displaced local family members amid a rout of jobs in and outside the tourism market.
Annual remittances, while not at record levels, still hover at the US$3.4-billion level since 2021. The growth added US$1 billion in additional inflows from the US$2.4-billion record in 2019, before the start of the pandemic.
English (US) ·