Jamaica economy

When Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica, it did not merely destroy buildings and uproot communities — it severed the country’s primary source of foreign exchange at the precise moment that reconstruction spending was set to surge. The IMF’s approval of US$415 million in emergency financing, formalised on January 20, 2026, provides critical breathing room for a government facing a balance-of-payments squeeze unlike anything since the COVID-19 pandemic. That Jamaica could access this funding within weeks of the disaster reflects not luck, but the compounding value of a decade of economic discipline — and what that discipline now makes possible matters enormously for ordinary Jamaicans facing the long road ahead.

Jamaica’s economic recovery from Hurricane Melissa is now expected to take significantly longer than first anticipated, with the Bank of…

Kingston, Jamaica — Monday 19 January 2026 The United States and several European countries are moving toward a fresh tariff…

GDP grows approximately 2.0% as Jamaica navigates a more uncertain global environment while maintaining its domestic momentumInflation falls toward 4.5%,…

As 2025 ended and 2026 began, Jamaica secured the largest disaster recovery financing in its history. But with the economy having contracted 7.1% in Q4 and tens of thousands still displaced, the scale of the task ahead was becoming clearer.

Jamaica’s payment system ended 2025 with a record 34,151 POS terminals and robust December electronic transaction volumes, while full-year data confirmed an accelerating shift away from cheques — annual volume fell 7.1% to 5.10 million as digital displacement reshapes how Jamaicans pay.

Jamaica’s ABM network recovered to 91.3% operational in December 2025 as Hurricane Melissa’s aftermath persisted, with 11 machines permanently destroyed in Scotia Bank’s fleet, Hanover parish at just 62.5% uptime, and Victoria Mutual staging a dramatic recovery from November’s 67.5% series low.

Jamaica remittances reached a record US$315.3 million in December 2025 — a 13.6% year-on-year surge — capping a full year of US$3,485.7 million in inflows (+3.8%), the strongest annual remittance total in the island’s history, as the UK corridor held firm at 12.5% and the agent network contracted to 442 locations.

In the weeks after Hurricane Melissa made landfall as the strongest storm in Jamaica’s history, an island of three million people faced destruction on a scale that would redefine its economic trajectory for years to come.

Jamaica’s JAMCLEAR-RTGS processed 4.6 million transactions through November 2025 as JMD ABM cash withdrawal values surged 32.5% year-to-date to JMD 1.1 trillion. POS transaction declines moderated sharply to just 2.8%, cheque volumes fell 15.5%, and outstanding government bonds rose 7.2% to JMD 831 billion.

Jamaica’s ABM network experienced its worst month of 2025 in November, with national uptime collapsing to 77.1% as Hurricane Melissa’s aftermath continued to ravage the network. Victoria Mutual’s uptime crashed to 67.5% — the worst single-institution reading of the year — as two of three regions fell below BOJ compliance standards. Scotia Bank lost 25+ machines to water damage.

Jamaica received US$281.2 million in remittances in November 2025, a 14.2% year-on-year surge — the strongest monthly performance of 2025 — as the UK corridor climbed to a series-high 12.5% share and cumulative inflows recovered to 3.0% growth year-on-year.

Every so often, a country faces a moment so testing, so utterly transformative, that it forces a complete re-examination of…

Hurricane Melissa made landfall on 28 October 2025 as a Category 5 storm with winds of 185 mph — the strongest ever to strike Jamaica. Within days, the island was confronting a humanitarian and economic emergency without parallel in its modern history.

Jamaica’s JAMCLEAR-RTGS processed 4.2 million transactions worth JMD 22.4 trillion through October 2025, as cheque volumes fell 22.4% year-to-date and JMD ABM transaction values surged 21.6%. A sharp paradox emerged as POS terminals grew 9.7% but transactions fell 11.3%, while Hurricane Melissa added weather disruption to October’s payment landscape.