Economic and Financial Review - June 2019

June 2019 Economic and Financial Review THE COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA

passage of hurricane Maria in September 2017. Preliminary data for the first half of 2019 indicate that economic activity has rebounded and that the economy’s performance improved, relative to the corresponding period of 2018. Construction activity is preliminarily estimated to have accelerated in the first half of 2019, reflecting developments in both the public and private sectors. Capital spending by the government increased by 2.5 per cent ($5.9m) to $238.4m associated with ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation activities following hurricane Maria in September 2017, as well as other infrastructural improvements. Public sector construction was complemented by ongoing private sector projects including the continued construction of Tranquillity Bay Beach Hotel and Jungle Bay Villas and the expansion of the Secret Bay Resort. Initial estimates suggest that private sector construction was further supported by an upsurge in residential construction as residents continue to rebuild and repair homes that were damaged during the passage of hurricane Maria. Accordingly, the number of residential starts increased to 82.0 from 20.0 in the corresponding period last year.

Activity in the tourism industry is estimated to have increased in the first six months of 2019, evidenced by a higher number of total tourist arrivals. This outcome was partially influenced by significant spending on tourism infrastructure, particularly in the accommodation sector to make more rooms available on the island. Preliminary estimates for the period January to June 2019 indicate that total visitor arrivals grew threefold to 205,193, in contrast to a decline of 76.1 per cent in corresponding period of 2018. This outturn was attributed to an expansion in both stay-over and cruise passenger arrivals. The number of stay-over visitors increased by 68.5 per cent to 44,372, influenced by a rise in visitor arrivals from all major source markets, namely, the Caribbean (78.1 per cent); the United Kingdom (59.2 per cent); the USA (27.0 per cent) and Canada (25.8 per cent). Likewise, the number of cruise passengers increased by over eightfold to 155,232, consistent with the growth in the number of cruise calls from 27 to 117. However, yacht passengers declined by 13.0 per cent (661) to 4,415 during the period under review.

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Eastern Caribbean Central Bank