Economic and Financial Review - June 2019

June 2019 Economic and Financial Review DOMESTIC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

Only three territories recorded overall improvements in agricultural activity. Regarding the non-banana sub-category, preliminary data indicate that output increased in The Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Christopher (St Kitts) and Nevis and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but declined in Saint Lucia. Banana production fell by 32.7 per cent to 6,514.4 tonnes, in contrast to an expansion of 20.2 per cent in the first six months of 2018. There were declines in banana output in three of the four producing countries, namely Grenada, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while The Commonwealth of Dominica experienced an increase in production, as the industry rebounded following replanting activity in 2018. The strengthened pace of activity in the tourism industry and developments in construction, and to a lesser extent, manufacturing, had a knock-on effect on the ancillary sectors like wholesale and retail trade; transport, storage and communications; and the real estate, renting and business activities sectors, which all performed creditably in the review period.

Public sector construction in the ECCU concentrated on reconstruction and rehabilitation of essential infrastructure, including a state of the art port development project, other seaport development and major island road networks. In the private sector, activity focused largely on hotels and other tourism-related plants. Consistent with robust construction activity, was the knock-on effect on ancillary sectors such as mining and quarrying, wholesale and retail trade, and transport, storage and communications. Preliminary estimates point to a marginal improvement in the performance of the manufacturing sector of the Currency Union in the first half of 2019. Manufacturing activity strengthened in The Commonwealth of Dominica, Saint Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. However, manufacturing output weakened in Grenada, where production of beverages and animal feed declined. In the agricultural sector, performance was mixed in the first half of 2019, compared with developments in that sector in the first six months of 2018.

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Eastern Caribbean Central Bank