Economic and Financial Review - June 2019

June 2019 Economic and Financial Review SAINT LUCIA

Hewanorra International Airport as well as investments in other critical infrastructure are expected to complement the expansion and upgrade of the tourism plant, further boosting the construction and ancillary sectors. In addition, the record-breaking performance of the tourism industry is anticipated to continue apace in the second half of the year, as the demand for the Saint Lucia product continues to grow. This development will be supported by additional airlift capacity, coupled with increased marketing of the destination. The central government’s fiscal operations are projected to yield a larger deficit, which may be mitigated by higher-than-expected growth. Some inflationary pressures are anticipated, largely dependent on global commodity prices, particular the price of crude oil. Risks remain tilted to the downside, primarily due to ongoing trade and geopolitical tensions as well as growing uncertainty surrounding the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Real Sector Developments Activity in the tourism industry is estimated to have risen in the first six months of 2019, compared with the corresponding period of 2018. This outturn was reflected by a 2.0 per cent (13,864) increase in total visitor

arrivals to 720,003. In particular, stay over arrivals rose by 6.5 per cent to 219,608, representing the largest number of visitors in this category in the country’s history over the comparable period. Some support was also provided by the number of cruise ship passengers which increased by 1.0 per cent to 458,635. The improvement in this category was largely associated with an increase in the size of vessels visiting the island, since the number of cruise ship calls fell to 218 from 237 in the first six months of the previous year. Mitigating the overall growth in arrivals were downward movements in the number of excursionists and yacht passengers, which declined by 19.2 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively. In respect of stay over arrivals, the number of visitors from the USA, the main source market, grew by 6.2 per cent to 102,430, slightly below the 7.7 per cent growth recorded in the first six months of 2018. Similarly, the number of stay-over visitors from Europe, the second largest source market, increased by 11.0 per cent to 54,025, largely attributable to growth in arrivals from the UK. Also positively impacting stay-over arrivals were visitors from the Caribbean, whose numbers increased by 9.3 per cent to 35,108

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Eastern Caribbean Central Bank