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Dollar slides some more Tuesday, 18 November 2008 
The Jamaican dollar continues to lose value despite an assurance from the Minister of Finance that stability would return to the foreign currency market.
The average selling rate for the American dollar as reported by the Bank of Jamaica burst past the J$77 for the first time on Monday.
At the end of trading it was costing J$77.11 cents for the US currency.
The slide occurred despite last week's auction of a US dollar indexed bond which was placed on the market for three days as part of efforts to mop up excess liquidity and ease demand pressures on the foreign currency market.
Further slippage possible
A Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies Darron Thomas says the slide in the value of the Jamaican dollar could worsen.
According to him, market variables might put more pressure on the currency.
"This is the time of year when possibly we would be ramping up the spending on US goods in terms of purchases for the Christmas season, but because the US dollar is a little more expensive, some of us might be deterred from engaging in that type of activity... we don't expect to see too many US dollars coming in and therefore, the dollar could slip even further," he said.
Mr. Thomas added that the international trend, where markets are not stabilizing is for people to continue to rush to safety and locally the US dollar is the currency of safety.
He said plans by the Government to borrow funds from overseas could help to slow down the slippage.
Mr. Thomas was speaking on RJR's daily current affairs discussion programme Beyond the Headlines on Monday.
The Jamaican dollar continues to lose value despite an assurance from the Minister of Finance that stability would return to the foreign currency market.The average selling rate for the American dollar as reported by the Bank of Jamaica burst past the J$77 for the first time on Monday.
At the end of trading it was costing J$77.11 cents for the US currency.
The slide occurred despite last week's auction of a US dollar indexed bond which was placed on the market for three days as part of efforts to mop up excess liquidity and ease demand pressures on the foreign currency market.
Further slippage possible
A Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies Darron Thomas says the slide in the value of the Jamaican dollar could worsen.According to him, market variables might put more pressure on the currency.
"This is the time of year when possibly we would be ramping up the spending on US goods in terms of purchases for the Christmas season, but because the US dollar is a little more expensive, some of us might be deterred from engaging in that type of activity... we don't expect to see too many US dollars coming in and therefore, the dollar could slip even further," he said.
Mr. Thomas added that the international trend, where markets are not stabilizing is for people to continue to rush to safety and locally the US dollar is the currency of safety.
He said plans by the Government to borrow funds from overseas could help to slow down the slippage.
Mr. Thomas was speaking on RJR's daily current affairs discussion programme Beyond the Headlines on Monday.
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