Economic and Financial Review - June 2019

June 2019 Economic and Financial Review ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

private sector, construction activity, mainly included hotel and business construction.

(810) in the first half of 2019 compared to its level one year earlier. Partially offsetting the expansion in the stay-over arrival segment, was the fall in the number of yacht passengers by 0.1 per cent to 12,879.

The volume of cement imports, a proxy of construction activity, is estimated to have increased by 14.3 per cent, a much slower growth rate than the brisk pace of 44.4 per cent in the corresponding period of 2018. Another proxy for construction activity is spending on the government’s capital programme. After almost doubling in the first half of 2018, capital expenditure fell by 12.1 per cent in the first half of 2019. This outturn was partly attributed to the delays encountered in the UK-funded Friars Hill Road rehabilitation project. During the review period, work on the project was unavoidably delayed by the installation of underground cables, which would improve the island’s resilience to natural disasters. Activity was estimated to have also decelerated from its momentum in the previous year, as a result of limited construction work on the government’s residential housing projects. Most of the work comprised installation of interior and exterior finishes, while a number of delays were reported from the completion of infrastructural work. In the private sector, construction activity was further eased, following the completion of construction

Antigua and Barbuda Visitor Arrivals

Thousands

100.0 150.0 200.0 250.0 300.0 350.0 400.0 450.0

0.0 50.0

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Stay-overs Cruise Ship Passengers (Includes Excursionists)

Yacht Passengers

Preliminary data and anecdotal evidence suggest that activity in the construction sector is estimated to have moderated, but remained robust in the first half of 2019 relative to the corresponding period in 2018. Activity in the sector comprised public sector and private sector projects. Public sector initiatives included the state-of-the-art port redevelopment project, reconstruction efforts in Barbuda, a number of government housing projects, including those in Denfield’s, Dredge Bay and Paynter’s and major road rehabilitation works, including the upgrade of the Friar’s Hill Road. In the

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Eastern Caribbean Central Bank