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2018 Annual Economic and Financial Review
GRENADA
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Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
manufacturing,
mining
and
quarry
(8.3 per cent); agriculture and fisheries
(5.7 per cent); distributive trades
(1.5 per cent); financial institutions
(6.9 per cent); professional and other services
(1.5 per cent); and entertainment and catering
(3.0 per cent). Meanwhile, the changes
observed in credit outstanding for public
administration and utilities, electricity, water
were mainly due to a reclassification from the
latter to the former.
The liquidity position of commercial banks
increased during 2018. The ratio of liquid
assets to total deposits plus liquid liabilities
rose by 2.7 percentage points to 49.1 per cent
at the end of December 2018. As the pace of
deposit growth far outpaced the expansion in
loans and advances granted, the loan to
deposits ratio declined by 1.3 percentage
points to 55.0 per cent. The quality of
commercial banks assets improved, evidenced
by a further reduction in the non-performing
loans ratio to 2.4 per cent from 3.9 per cent in
2017.
External Sector Developments
A merchandise trade deficit of $1,146.6m
(35.2 per cent of GDP) was recorded in
2018, above the $1053.7m (34.6 per cent of
GDP) recorded in the corresponding period
of 2017.
This widening deficit was largely associated
with higher import payments. The value of
imports grew by 8.5 per cent ($96.5m) to
$1,231.2m, influenced primarily by larger
outlays for mineral fuels and related materials
and manufactured goods. The increase in
import payments was partly cushioned by a
4.3 per cent ($3.5m) growth in the value of
exports to $84.6m. This reflected a combined
increase in the value of domestic exports and
re-exports. Domestic export earnings rose by
3.9 per cent to $78.1m on account of
improvements in both agricultural and
manufactured exports. Receipts from
agricultural exports rose by a further
47.7 per cent ($13.6m), due to higher receipts
for commodities, specifically, cocoa