BOJ opens forex window for public companies; Other top stories today Posted on February 20, 2009February 20, 2009 by Your Financial FactSheet Jamaica Gleaner: The Jamaican central bank has undertaken to supply key state-owned companies with their foreign currency requirements in what the bank’s governor, Derick Latibeaudiere, says is a temporary move to help ease a demand scramble on the foreign exchange market and pressure on the Jamaican dollar. Jamaica Observer: “Caribbean needs debt relief” – Davies Caricom should approach the West including US president Barack Obama for debt relief and extended lines of credit at a regional summit in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) in April, said opposition finance minister Dr Omar Davies. It is not begging, said Davies but rather a set of demands to secure the region’s best defence against the worst economic crisis since the 30s. Jamaica Observer: “Why does Jamaica continue with a high interest rate regime?” At his most recent quarterly press briefing on Wednesday, Central Bank Governor Derick Latibaudiere stated that whilst he fully understood people’s concerns about the current high level of interest rates, the fundamental issue was that there was a disequilibrium in Jamaica’s foreign exchange market due to lower supply and greater demand. Jamaica Observer: “Jamaica would be in deeper crisis without multilateral funding-Shaw” Finance Minister Audley Shaw has said that the country would have been in much deeper economic problems today if the Government had not sourced just under US$1-billion in low cost funding from multilateral financial institutions over the past year.