Annual Economic and Financial Review -December 2018

2018 Annual Economic and Financial Review

GRENADA

2018, above the $1053.7m (34.6 per cent of GDP) recorded in the corresponding period of 2017.

manufacturing, 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. mining and

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

External Sector Developments

A merchandise trade deficit of $1,146.6m (35.2 per cent of GDP) was recorded in

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