GROWTH IN 2016

Wed, 01/25/2017 - 12:00am
Central Bank Governor gives review of Barbados’ economic performance

 

THE Barbados economy has recorded its third consecutive year of growth and the outlook for this year is encouraging. Yesterday, the Central Bank of Barbados announced that growth was 1.6 per cent in 2016, following on the 0.9 per cent a year earlier and 0.3 per cent in 2014.
 
Central Bank Governor, Dr. DeLisle Worrell, said that the expansion in 2016 is associated with a decline in unemployment to ten per cent of the labour force. As for the future, he said in his Review for 2016 that the forecast growth rate for the next five years continues to be about two per cent.
 
“In the near term, the engines of growth will be Barbados’ highly regarded tourism services and construction projects with a total value of $2.6 billion in tourism, infrastructure, energy and housing,” said Dr. Worrell.
 

Dealing with the 2016 performance of the economy, the Governor said the Tourism industry again led the growth on the back of a 6.3 per cent in long stay visitor arrivals, with strong growth reported in arrivals from the USA, the Caribbean, and Canada. Arrivals from the UK market were two per cent higher, but those from Other Europe and Other Countries declined.

 

Dr. Worrell also pointed out that “there was growth in all the large non-traded sectors”. Construction activity was up, as well as output in Distribution; Transport, Storage and Communication; and Finance and Other Services.

In addition, exports increased by five per cent to $511 million, recovering some of the ground lost in 2015. The increase, he explained was mainly driven by the exports of rum and other beverages, construction materials and printed labels.

 

The Governor reported that Government’s current account deficit for April to December 2016 is estimated at $510 million, a deterioration of $31 million on the previous year, mainly due to a $17 million decrease in revenue from personal income tax. Receipts from VAT were up $48 million and the New National Social Responsibility Levy has yielded $8.3 million. Current expenditure was higher by $25 million compared to the same period a year ago.

 

Transfers to state-owned enterprises were down, but interest payments rose to $53 million.

Capital expenditure was $36 million lower than for the same time a year earlier. (JB)

 

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