(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaican families, heavily dependent on remittances, are feeling the tight squeeze of reduction in inflows. Since the start of the year, the families have had to make do without their share of the more than J$12.7-billion shortfall in foreign exchange recorded in the first five months of 2009.

A remittance update published by the Bank of Jamaica showed that, between January and May 2009, remittance inflows declined by more than US$140 million when compared to the same period last year.

Zedayne Simister, risk and research manager at Guardian Asset Management Jamaica Limited, told The Sunday Gleaner that “on the micro-economic scale, reduction in remittances, a major source of foreign exchange for the country, could negatively affect the local consumption of goods and services for those households which are dependent on these funds.”

Simister also noted that a decline in the remittance inflows, “all things being constant”, usually has an adverse impact on the foreign exchange rate.