• Blue Power Group (BPOW) had nearly all its profits washed down the drain for the third quarter (Q3) ended January 31, 2026, as earnings plunged 96.6% year-over-year to $488.3K. The sharp decline reflects a combination of weak sales in lower-priced bath soap products and a build-up of foreign exchange losses, which weighed on finance income.
• Q3 revenues amounted to $193.66Mn (-11.6%), as sales lost some lather during the quarter, particularly within certain value products in its bath soap product line. This segment has faced intense price competition from sporadic informal imports, which are squeezing both its direct sales and those of its distributors and brand owners.
• Despite an improvement in direct cost (-13.8%), quarterly gross profit slipped by $4.78Mn (-7.5%), reflecting weaker sales volumes. At the same time, cost pressures continued to mount, as the company remains subject to a 40% duty on key raw materials under the CARICOM treaty framework. This rule, clarified by the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2024, has raised production costs and left BPOW fighting to stay competitive in the low-cost value soap category. The company is engaging CARICOM authorities for potential duty relief on raw materials. Despite this, gross profit margins improved to 30.3% from 28.9%, suggesting the company is still managing to squeeze some extra suds from its product mix.
• Operating and administrative expenses rose modestly to $3.39Mn (+3.0%) as the company continued to support its operations and product portfolio while navigating slippery competitive pressure. Consequently, profit before finance income and taxation amounted to $7.49Mn, down 46.2% relative to the previous corresponding quarter, while operating margins thinned from 6.7% to 4.1%. Still, management indicated that immediate steps are being taken to improve operating efficiency in its low-cost product lines to restore competitiveness and protect margins.
• Results were further dulled by an adverse swing in finance income, which shifted from $3.86Mn in Q3 2025 to a loss of $7.32Mn. This reversal was largely driven by foreign exchange losses on the company’s US-dollar cash balances and fixed-income investment portfolio, effectively rinsing out what would have otherwise been stronger operating gains.
• Owing to a combination of weaker earnings from the start of the financial year, year to date earnings for the nine-month slipped to $46.5Mn (-54.1%), highlighting how both operating and financial pressures combined left BPOW struggling to keep profits from slipping down the drain.
• Looking ahead, management remains optimistic about growth in higher-margin premium products, particularly natural and plant-based soaps, where increased sales have already partially offset weaker value-segment performance. The company also remains committed to its market-leading position in laundry bar soap, noting that a refreshed product review and innovation pipeline will be rolled out for this portfolio in the upcoming financial year.
• BPOW's stock price has decreased by 9.3% since the start of the year to close at $3.72 on Thursday, March 12, 2026. At this price, it trades at a P/E of 21.88x, which is above the Junior Market Manufacturing Sector average of 21.7x.

(Sources: JSE & NCBCM Research)

• Over the past decade, Jamaica has engineered an extraordinary fiscal turnaround, slashing its public-debt-to-GDP ratio from 140% in 2012 to 62% in 2024. This as highlighted in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) March 2026 article “Debt Reduction Lessons from Jamaica,” was accomplished largely through consistently high primary budget surpluses averaging more than 6% of GDP for over ten years.
• But this answer raises a further question: How did Jamaica achieve a consensus on the need to run such substantial surpluses with the goal of more than halving its public debt, and how did it implement and maintain the requisite policies? The IMF argues that three elements combined made the country’s successful debt consolidation possible: a coherent set of rules and procedures, effective consensus-building efforts, and an independent fiscal oversight body.
• Beginning in 2010, Jamaica implemented a fiscal responsibility framework that required eliminating the budget deficit and reducing the debt ratio to no more than 100% by FY2016. This was later strengthened in 2014 with a multiyear plan to bring debt down to 60% of GDP by 2026 (later pushed to 2028 during COVID-19). The framework included a carefully designed escape clause allowing temporary suspension of fiscal rules when shocks exceed 1.5% of GDP, with activation requiring independent validation by the auditor general, ensuring the rules were credible while allowing responses to emergencies.
• Furthermore, in 2013, the government of Jamaica, the opposition, labour unions, and employer associations signed the Partnership for Jamaica Agreement, explicitly acknowledging the unsustainable debt burden and committing to transparency, accountability, consultation, and equitable burden sharing to sustain fiscal adjustment.
• Finally, monitoring by the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) also helped verify implementation of reforms and IMF program commitments, while the creation of the Independent Fiscal Commission in 2025 institutionalised fiscal transparency and provided an independent “second opinion” on fiscal developments, reinforcing adherence to fiscal rules.
• These three elements combined made possible the country’s successful debt consolidation. As a result, additional Caribbean countries have followed Jamaica’s example by adopting fiscal rules, forming independent fiscal councils, and working to forge a social consensus around fiscal reform.
• However, the story doesn’t quite end there. In October 2025, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica, causing damage estimated at US$8.8Bn or roughly 41% of GDP. In response, the government quickly assembled a comprehensive package to finance Jamaica’s recovery and reconstruction efforts, drawing on a layered disaster risk financing framework it had built over the years.
• Independent validation and the country’s strong track record reassured markets, despite the significant damage, which resulted in none of the major credit rating agencies downgrading the government’s bonds following either the storm or suspension of the rules. Looking ahead, debt is projected to rise slightly to 68% of GDP in 2026 before resuming a gradual decline, with the 60% target now expected by 2030.

(Source: IMF)

• As offshore oil development moves closer to production, Suriname’s government is outlining a longer-term economic vision aimed at ensuring oil revenues translate into broader national development.
• In an interview with the Communications Service Suriname on February 26, Minister of Oil, Gas and Environment Patrick Brunings cautioned against over reliance on the country’s emerging oil and gas sector. 
• “I see the oil and gas industry as a catalyst that will accelerate our economic recovery,” Brunings said. “But we absolutely mustn’t rely on it. We must use this prosperity to develop sustainable industries, so we remain flexible and don’t become dependent on just one source.”
• With offshore activity expanding and production from the GranMorgu project in Block 58 expected in 2028, the government is preparing a longer-term economic framework referred to as ‘Suriname 3.0’. “With the focus on offshore activities and the approaching production in 2028, the government is preparing for Suriname 3.0,” Brunings said. The concept forms part of a broader development planning effort that includes the preparation of ‘Vision 2050’, which is intended to guide Suriname’s long-term economic trajectory. 
• According to government discussions with the private sector, the initiative builds on the current ‘Suriname 2.0’ phase and seeks to outline the country’s long-term transformation under Suriname 3.0, while serving as a starting point for both the Green Development Strategy and a new Multi-Year Development Program.
• According to the minister, the strategy aims to ensure that revenues from the oil and gas sector support the development of other industries, including modern agriculture, ecotourism and fisheries. “You want to diversify as early as possible,” he said.
• While oil development is accelerating, Brunings stressed that the country must avoid becoming overly dependent on petroleum revenues and guard against the so-called Dutch disease, where sudden resource wealth weakens other parts of the economy.

(Source: OIL Now)

• The Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) government is seeking to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), expand exports, and develop new industries as part of its strategy to diversify Trinidad and Tobago’s economy.
• Speaking at the Catalyst SME Conference, Planning and Development Minister Kennedy Swaratsingh said SMEs remain central to the country’s economic transformation. SMEs are the engines of innovation, employment and economic participation, they stimulate new ideas and form the value of economic resilience,” he said.
• Cabinet recently approved the development of a Strategic National Development Plan for 2026 to 2030, which will guide the country’s development over the next five years. These pillars the Minister notes are designed to create an environment in which businesses can grow, innovate and compete globally. However, national transformation cannot happen by government alone. It requires strong collaboration with the private sector, entrepreneurs and financial institutions.
• The Agriculture and the creative sector also have significant potential for diversification in the economy; however, the industry must be repositioned as a modern and technology-driven sector. He explained that “Agriculture today is no longer about primary production. It involves innovation in agro-processing, supply chain management, climate resilient farming and export market development.”
• Likewise, there are opportunities within the Carnival economy and wider creative industries. The global creative industries generate approximately US$2.3 trillion annually, but T&T’s contribution remains minimal contributing less than one-tenth of 1.0% of international GDP. This gap represents a significant opportunity for economic expansion.
• Overall, these initiatives signal a renewed push to reduce Trinidad & Tobago’s reliance on the energy sector by nurturing SMEs, modernising agriculture, and unlocking value in the creative economy as new drivers of sustainable growth. If successfully executed, the strategy could strengthen non-energy sectors, broaden the country’s economic and export base, and support stronger non-energy GDP growth. Over time, this diversification could improve employment and domestic income generation, increase foreign exchange inflows, and reduce sensitivity to oil and gas price cycles, contributing to more stable fiscal revenues and greater macroeconomic resilience.

(Sources: Trinidad Express and NCBCM Research)

• As both energy prices and inflation fears pop, expectations for Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate cuts are sliding, reflecting a shift in market sentiment as inflation risks resurface. Traders in recent days have abandoned hopes of an early summer easing from the central bank, a change in thinking that coincided with the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran and a burst in oil prices to around $100 a barrel.
• Before the conflict, the market anticipation had been for a quarter percentage point rate reduction in June 2026, likely another one in September 2026, and an outside chance of even three, depending on how the economics played out, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch calculations, highlighting how expectations for policy easing were previously stronger.
• Much of the thinking behind that approach was that a softening labour market, moderating inflation and a new dovish chair coming on board in May 2026 would push the Fed into an easing posture. However, at least as long as the Iran drama plays out, the expectations now are that fighting inflation will remain paramount.
• A higher inflation path will make it harder for the Fed to start cutting soon, and as such, Goldman Sachs officially adjusted its rate forecast, pushing back the next cut to September from June, though it still thinks the Fed could lower once more before the end of 2026.
• Additionally, traders in the fed funds futures market have taken even a September cut off the table and now see only one coming, in December, according to the CME gauge, with no additional cuts priced in until well into 2027 or even into the early part of 2028, despite expectations surrounding the arrival of a new Fed chair.
• The Fed will get another look at inflation data when the Commerce Department releases the personal consumption expenditures price index data for January 2026, while the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee issues its next rate decision on March 18, 2026, and traders are assigning a nearly 100% probability to the committee staying on hold.

(Source: CNBC)

• Global oil markets got a theoretical safety valve Wednesday when the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil, while the U.S. said it would tap 172 million barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help lower energy costs. While this was seen as an unprecedented move from the IEA and U.S. administration, according to markets it was not enough as oil prices are surging once again, with Brent crude topping $100 per barrel on Thursday, March 12, 2026.
• The energy picture is complicated by another development as Iran continued to send large amounts of crude oil via the Strait of Hormuz to China even as the war between U.S.-Israel and Iran has jeopardised broader supplies through the critical waterway.
• Notwithstanding, the war that continues to rage in Iran has not distracted President Donald Trump from his trade war. The U.S. administration on Wednesday launched trade probes into more than a dozen countries to replace the reciprocal tariffs, which were recently ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. The main targets are the EU, China, Mexico, alongside a slew of other nations, including Switzerland, Norway, Japan, India and South Korea.
• In other words, energy markets are volatile, supply chains are tightening, and trade tensions are heating up again. Meanwhile, global equities remain sensitive to the energy moves. European stocks are expected to open lower, while U.S. futures are also pointing to another negative session.

(Source: CNBC)

• Jamaica’s Net International Reserves (NIR) increased to US$6.80Bn at the end of February 2026, up US$72.51Mn (+1.1%) relative to January 2026 and 24.3% higher than February 2025. The month-on-month improvement was largely driven by an expansion in foreign assets, along with a slight decline in foreign liabilities.
• Total foreign assets increased by US$72.44Mn to US$6.82Bn. The growth was primarily supported by a US$69.73Mn increase in Currency & Deposits, alongside gains in Securities (US$16.17Mn). These increases were partially offset by a US$13.26Mn decline in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) holdings and a US$0.19Mn decline in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Reserve Position.
• Reflecting a slight reduction in obligations to the IMF, foreign liabilities declined marginally by US$0.07Mn to US$12.98Mn, which further strengthened the overall reserve position.
• At its current level, Jamaica’s NIR cover approximately 55.9 weeks of goods imports and 36.2 weeks of goods and services imports, well above the international adequacy benchmark of 12 weeks. The reserves also represent 156.47% of the IMF’s Assessing Reserve Adequacy (ARA)^[1] metric, reinforcing the country’s strong external liquidity position.
• Finance and Public Service Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, at the opening of the 2026/2027 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, March 10, 2025, emphasised the importance of maintaining strong reserve buffers, noting that the NIR plays a critical role in shielding Jamaica from external economic shocks, including global commodity price volatility and geopolitical uncertainties. Maintaining robust reserves ensures the country has the foreign currency needed to finance imports while supporting stability in the foreign exchange (FX) market.
• The continued strength in reserves is being supported by steady inflows from remittances and the recent uptick in external financing, which continues to provide the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) with the FX required to manage market volatility and maintain confidence in the Jamaican dollar.

(Sources: BOJ, JIS and NCBCM Research)

^[1] The IMF's Assessing Reserve Adequacy (ARA) metric is a risk-weighted, composite formula used to determine if a country's foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to handle potential balance of payments shocks. It calculates an adequate reserve level by covering a percentage of short-term debt, other portfolio liabilities, broad money, and exports.

• On March 10, 2026, in a corporate disclosure made on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), Kintyre Holdings (JA) Limited (KNTYR) advised the market that the Company has been notified that a group of principal shareholders representing in excess of 51% of the voting rights of the Company intends to undertake a restructuring of their shareholdings.
• The proposed restructuring contemplates the consolidation of those shareholdings into a newly established United States-based holding company, Kintyre Holdings International Inc., which is intended to serve as an international parent entity supporting the next phase of growth and strategic expansion of Kintyre.
• Following the restructuring, the new parent entity may pursue a potential listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act framework, which provides regulatory accommodations for emerging growth companies.
• The JOBS Act, enacted in the U.S. in 2012, was designed to encourage capital formation by emerging growth companies. The legislation allows companies with less than US$1 billion in annual revenue to access U.S. public capital markets with scaled regulatory requirements during the early years following their listing, including confidential filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and phased regulatory compliance requirements.
• Management highlighted that access to deeper U.S. capital markets and greater investor liquidity could support Kintyre’s expansion across Caribbean and Latin American markets, while maintaining its operational base in Jamaica. The company also emphasised that the restructuring will not change ultimate beneficial ownership or control, and remains subject to customary legal and administrative processes, with further updates to be provided as developments occur.

(Source: JSE)

• Ten groups, including several Chinese companies, have submitted proposals to build Guyana’s planned ammonia and urea fertilizer plant at Wales, according to tender opening results released last week.
• The proposals were invited by the Government of Guyana through the Office of the Prime Minister under the Gas-to-Energy Task Force for Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) services for the Guyana Ammonia and Urea Plant (GAUP).
• The government had previously announced that the GAUP will be developed as a public-private partnership and will use up to 20 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the second phase of the Wales Gas-to-Energy project.
• Once completed, the facility is expected to produce about 300,000 tons of fertilizer annually. Authorities have said the plant is intended to supply both the domestic and regional markets, including the Caribbean and northern Brazil, with the aim of lowering fertilizer prices and supporting agricultural productivity.
• The proposed plant site lies east of the combined-cycle power plant and natural gas liquids (NGL) facility currently under construction at Wales as part of the first phase of the Gas-to-Energy project.
• Lean gas for the fertilizer facility is expected to be supplied by Guyana Power and Gas Inc. (GPGI), the state-owned company responsible for handling and distributing natural gas delivered to shore from offshore fields.
• According to the government, the fertilizer plant is targeted to become operational by 2028, in line with the anticipated completion of the second phase of the Gas-to-Energy project.

(Source: OIL Now)

• While Americans are warily eyeing prices at the pump as oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz grind to a halt amid the threat of Iranian attacks on vessels, oil is far from the only product for which the world economy is heavily dependent that passes through the waterway. From the metals market to agriculture and autos, a de facto closure of the strait would ripple through business sectors and both the U.S. and world economy.
• Aluminium is one of the biggest non-petroleum commerce casualties of the U.S.-Iran war. In 2025, the Middle East accounted for roughly 21% of unwrought aluminium imports and 13% of wrought aluminium imports, and those percentages have been rising. In addition, the Gulf is a major supplier of aluminium, and disruptions could tighten supply chains for advanced manufacturing. Aluminium prices are already rising, and further disruption could increase input costs for automotive, aerospace, and construction manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe.
• Fertiliser represents one of the biggest downstream risks because roughly one-third of global fertiliser trade transits the Strait of Hormuz, including large volumes of nitrogen exports. Prices at the New Orleans fertiliser hub for urea have already risen from $475/metric ton to $680/metric ton, which comes at a challenging time for the planting window in the Midwest for soy and corn. If those shipments are blocked during the spring planting season, it could wreak havoc on food inflation.
• Petrochemical inputs, plastics, rubber, electronics, batteries, pharmaceuticals, and sugar are among other inputs and sectors facing supply chain stress. If Strait of Hormuz disruptions force vessel rerouting, inland port disruption can escalate quickly as the initial ocean impact may take 10–14 days to appear, but the real pressure typically hits within 2–5 weeks as diverted containers arrive in clusters, terminal congestion rises, and drayage demand outpaces truck and chassis availability.
• Disrupted trade lanes also reduce empty container availability, tightening export capacity in other markets, including North America. For retailers, all of this means higher inbound logistics costs and potential inventory delays, which often translate into higher shelf prices or tighter margins across groceries, consumer goods, and imported products.

(Source: CNCB)