Despite a fall-off inflows in 2022 in comparison to the prior year, remittances for the concluding year seem set to exceed the US$3-billion mark another time.

In 2021, the historic benchmark of US$3.497 billion was achieved.

For the January to October 2022 period, remittance inflows to Jamaica amounted to US$2836.9 million. With two reporting months left to be added to the total, and with average monthly inflows being US$200 million, it seems a safe bet that remittances will pass the US$3-billion mark another time.

The island usually sees higher than average inflows in December, as relatives of Jamaicans who are resident abroad salute the season with gifts of cash to those left behind, giving them assistance in their efforts to celebrate the end of the year.

In October 2022, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) in its latest remittance report said that net remittance inflows of US$263.3 million, declined by 5.3 per cent or US$ 14.6 million in comparison to October of 2021.

The BOJ indicates that the slide in inflows stemmed from a decline in total remittance inflows of US$15.6 million, partly offset by a reduction of US$0.9 million or 5.2 per cent in total remittance outflows.

The decline in gross remittance inflows largely reflected a fall of 3.5 per cent in inflows via remittance companies further aided by a decline in Inflows via the other remittances channel of 15.9 per cent for the month of October.

The BOJ commented, “The decline in remittance inflows is partly due to increased cash in hand remittances as travel recovers.”

The largest source market of remittance flows to Jamaica for October 2022 continued to be the USA from which inflows accounted for 70.8 per cent, of total flows up from 69.8 per cent recorded for October 2021.

Other source countries which contributed a notable share of remittances for the month were Canada at 10.9 per cent, followed by UK and the Cayman Islands at 8.6 per cent and 5.9 per cent, respectively.

Year to date inflows of US$2836.9 million for Jamaica represented a decline of 2.2 per cent as opposed to El Salvador which registered growth of 3.6 per cent for the period.