Kingston takes the bulk of remittance growth since Melissa

Residents of Kingston and St Andrew received most of the growth in remittances since Hurricane Melissa, rather than the parishes the storm hit hardest.

Jamaicans abroad sent home US$1.85 billion through remittance companies in the seven months after the storm, from November 2025 to May 2026, up 7.7 per cent, according to the latest parish-level data published by the Bank of Jamaica. That works out to US$132.5 million more than they sent in the same seven months a year earlier.

Kingston and St Andrew received US$79.6 million of that increase – 60 cents in every extra dollar. Inflows to the capital rose 11.8 per cent.

The four parishes in the storm’s path fared worse. St James, Hanover, Trelawny and Westmoreland together received US$223.2 million, up 4.2 per cent. In money terms that is an increase of US$9.0 million between all four, against Kingston’s US$79.6 million. Almost all of it came from Westmoreland, which took in US$7.0 million of that growth, lifting its inflows 8.8 per cent year on year. It was the only storm-hit parish to beat the national rate of 7.7 per cent, though it still trailed Kingston’s rise.

The others barely moved. Hanover rose 5.5 per cent and Trelawny 3.0 per cent, but both increases amounted to about US$1.0 million.

St James, which includes Montego Bay, received US$82.4 million. It received the same US$82.4 million in the seven months before the storm. No increase at all.

In St Elizabeth, where the town of Black River was destroyed, inflows rose 4.1 per cent, or US$4.4 million.

When the storm struck last October, remittances across the island initially dipped 6.6 per cent against year-earlier levels. During that month, 12 of the 14 parishes received less money than a year before. St James fell 16.3 per cent, Westmoreland 14.5 per cent and Hanover 14.3 per cent. Kingston and St Andrew was the only parish that grew, by 2.7 per cent.

Kingston and St Andrew’s remittance growth did not start with the hurricane. Between 2021 and 2025, money sent to the capital rose 15.3 per cent while money sent to the rest of the island fell 4.8 per cent, leaving national inflows up just 2.3 per cent over the five years. Hanover has lost 22 per cent of its inflows since 2020, and St James 12.8 per cent.

Tighter controls on the money trail

The western parishes have also absorbed the sharpest end of Jamaica’s anti-money-laundering enforcement. The Jamaica Constabulary Force launched its ‘Scam Dun, Justice A Run’ initiative in June 2025, targeting lottery scamming in St James, Westmoreland, Trelawny and Hanover. By July that year the operation had produced 91 raids and charged 24 persons, with seizures of more than J$44 million and US$55,000.

Slower growth ahead

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has warned that the conditions behind recent increases are fading, with remittance inflows across the Caribbean growing 5.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2026 – a marked deceleration.

The IDB attributed the slowdown to the exhaustion of two forces that powered the post-pandemic surge: transfers financed out of migrants’ savings, and the additional working hours migrants had been putting in. It said the outlook for the rest of the year depends largely on migrant labour market participation in the United States and on exchange rate movements across the region.

Jamaica’s inflows grew 4.1 per cent in the first quarter, behind Haiti at 12 per cent and the Dominican Republic at 4.2 per cent. Remittances across Latin America and the Caribbean reached a record US$173.7 billion in 2025, up 7.3 per cent, with the Caribbean outpacing the wider region at 10.8 per cent – a rate the 2026 figures suggest will not be repeated.

The figures capture money moved through remittance companies only and exclude transfers through commercial banks and building societies. They record where funds are collected, which need not be where recipients live.

business@gleanerjm.com