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GDP Growth Rate of CARICOM

GDP is the single most commonly referenced figure to cover the entirety of a national economy
and the trajectory it is on in a single statistic. It is one of the primary indicators used to gauge the
health of a country's economy. It represents the total dollar value of all goods and services
produced over a specific time period; one can think of it as the size of the economy. Usually,
GDP is expressed as a comparison to the previous quarter or year.
The key indicator of economic development is the growth of gross national income per capita.
The main drivers of this are the improvements in the competitiveness indicators of labor
productivity, import productivity and the share of investible profit in national income, which
must be investigated using the structure of industry (i.e. the sector shares in GDP and
employment) as weights. These factors help to determine whether the region can achieve price
and quality competitiveness in international trade.

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Fig: GDP GROWTH RATES FOR THE CARIBBEAN AND THE WORLD
Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), based on
country and International Monetary Fund (IMF) data
The chart represents that, over the decades since 1970, economic growth was marginally above
the population growth rate. In the decade 2000-2009, the rate of economic development has
slowed substantially, as the average rate of economic growth fell closer to population growth.

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The structure of the Caribbean economy has changed over time. Specifically, the Jamaican
economy appears to have restructured towards a service economy centered on tourism, the
creative services, and the financial sector, but with some significant remaining role for its
traditional specialist mineral export sector. In the case of Saint Lucia, the evidence appears to
show a decisive restructuring of the economy to a service oriented economy centered on
communications, tourism and related services, with only a moderate and declining role for
traditional export agriculture. By contrast, Trinidad and Tobago, and to a lesser extent Suriname,
have continued to evolve mainly as mineral-export economies, focused on energy and its
derivatives. There has, however, been some limited growth in the manufacturing sector through
investment of some of the foreign exchange surpluses into manufacturing.

Fig: Comparison between the GDP

The chart shows that, the slowdown starting in the 1990s was triggered by the loss of trade
preferences to European markets and deterioration of the terms of trade, reduced fiscal space,
and demographic trends, including emigration of skilled labor. Recurring natural disasters also
contributed to lower growth and increased fiscal vulnerabilities. However it is also clear that,
Commodity exporting Caribbean countries contributes more to the GDP rather than the tourism
based exporting.

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GDP of the CARICOM Countries for the Last 8 Years

Countries
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Aruba
0.2
1.1 3.2
8.9
3.6
1.8
Bahamas
1.3
5.4 1.0
2.0
1
0.7
Barbados
0.1
3.7 0.2
0.4
0
-0.3
Belize
3.6
0.0 2.8
2.0
4
0.7
Guyana
2.0
3.3 4.4
5.4
4.8
5.2
Haiti
0.8
2.9 5.1
5.6
2.9
4.3
Jamaica
0.9
3.0 1.2
1.5
-0.5
0.2
St Kitts and 1.9
0.5 0.4
0.0
-0.9
3.8
Nevis
Suriname
4.1
3.5 4.5
5.0
4.8
4.1
Trinidad
2.7
3.3 0.0
1.4
1.2
1.6
&Tobago

(in %)
2014 2015
1.9
1.7
1.2
2.1
-0.6
0.5
2
2.5
3.3
3.8
3.8
3.7
1.1
1.8
3.5
3.2
3.3
2.3

3.8
2.1

The table shows the GDP of the Caribbean Countries for the last 8 Years. Data in table however,
show that per capita GDP varies considerably. The countries that rank higher in term of GDP
are- Guyana, Haiti, Suriname, Aruba and Bahamas.
St. Kitts and Nevis experienced a moderate growth based on the strengthening recovery in
tourism and continued investment inflows for mainly tourism and real estate-related
construction. Belize, Guyana and Suriname, all three recorded growth rates in excess of 3%, led
by construction and other services. Haitis growth performance was led by exporting agricultural
commodities. Moderate gains (between 1 and 3%) in services-dependent Aruba, Barbados,
Bahamas, were likewise linked to the general improvement in tourism and construction.
However the economic growth in Caribbean has slowed more than anticipated. According to
IMF , lower commodity price, domestic policy uncertainties are the main drag on the growth.