Business Briefs
Published:Tuesday | October 2, 2018 | 12:00 AM
BOJ maintains interest rate at 2%
Bank of Jamaica has left its policy interest rate unchanged at 2.00 per cent.
The rate announcement on October 2 marks the second consecutive decision to maintain the rate at its existing level, a decision based on expectations for inflation, which is currently below target. A similar decision was made in August.
"The bank's assessment is supported by the twelve-month inflation rate at August 2018 which rose to 3.9 per cent from 2.8 per cent in June 2018," the central bank said. Its target range for inflation is 4-6 per cent.
The next rate decision will be announced November 16.
JSE adjusts fee on multi-fill orders
The Jamaica Stock Exchange has followed through on its promise to adjust the pricing of multi-fill orders, a move that will benefit small investors who pay for stock orders in tranches.
As of Monday, October 1, the fee charged by subsidiary Jamaica Central Securities Depository now applies to the total order, instead of the settlement of each instalment, no matter the number of trades required to fill the order.
The new fee will be three basis points or 0.03 per cent, which will apply to each side of the transaction, that is, buy and sell.
"This decision by the JCSD board is positive for the market, and small investors stand to benefit from this change," said JCSD General Manager Andrea Kelly in a statement. "To attract our previous minimum settlement fee of J$110, an investor would need to be settling a trade value of just over $366,000," she said.