Bank of Jamaica joins the twittersphere
Published:Monday | October 29, 2018 | 12:00 AMSteven Jackson
The Bank of Jamaica, BOJ, which issued its first tweet on Monday, says it's one more medium it can use to curb the spread of misinformation.
"Ceteris paribus we estimate this to be our first tweet," said the central bank's first message on Twitter. It's followers hit 50 on the day, and had grown to 838 by early Friday.
Ceteris paribus is Latin for 'all other things being equal' or 'other things equal', which represents a major principle in economics.
Tony Morrison, head of communication at BOJ, said the page will tweet on BOJ policy rates, economic data, speeches by the Governor, and statements on relevant events. It will be managed in-house by the communication department.
It is also the only social media platform on which the central bank is present. BOJ's new Twitter account comes in the wake of public criticism by Minister of Finance Nigel Clarke that while even the Queen of England was on Twitter, Jamaica's central bank was not.
Morrison said the creation of the Twitter account was unrelated to the criticism.
"We are starting with Twitter because it is a small department and need to increase capacity before we can efficiently manage several other social media accounts," he said.
The BOJ's first tweet was inspired by the Central Intelligence Agency, whose debut on the platform was a hilarious allusion to the secrecy. The US agency tweeted that it would 'neither confirm nor deny' that it is on Twitter.
"The CIA's first tweet is difficult to beat it," Morrison chuckled.