2020 Annual Economic and Financial Review

2020 Annual Economic and Financial Review

ANGUILLA

Real Sector Developments Real sector developments in Anguilla were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought a sudden halt to tourism activity from March to November, 2020. Consequently, value added in the hotels and restaurants sector declined by 74.0 per cent in 2020. The total number of visitors was approximately one quarter (41,093) of the amount recorded in 2019 (166,351). This reflected declines in stay over arrivals and excursionists by 73.4 per cent and 77.9 per cent, respectively. The halt in tourism activity led to contractions in other major sectors such as wholesale and retail trade (43.0 per cent) and transport, storage and communications (23.7 per cent). The construction sector also did poorly with output contracting by 15.0 per cent, partly due to the lockdown and interruptions in supply chains.

On the brighter side, growth was recorded in the sectors of public administration, defence and compulsory social security (2.1 per cent), health and social work (2.1 per cent), education (1.7 per cent), financial intermediation (1.5 per cent), and agriculture, livestock and forestry (0.5 per cent). In line with depressed economic activity as well as relatively low global oil prices, the consumer price index fell by 1.0 per cent during 2020, in contrast to an increase of 0.7 per cent during 2019. revenue collection fell by $40.8m to $192.5m (26.2 per cent of GDP) as the measures taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic such as border closures, curfews and lockdowns curtailed economic activity. Tax revenue amounted to $157.6m, down from $197.1m in 2019. All tax revenue categories recorded declines, but the hardest hit were those associated with domestic goods and services and international trade and transactions. Non tax revenue fell by $1.4m to $34.9m. Fiscal and Debt Developments Anguilla’s current

Anguilla Visitor Arrivals (In thousands)

100.0 110.0

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Stay-overs

Excursionists

Note: yacht data not available for Anguilla

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