ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, November 9th, 2011 --  Grenada’s Prime Minister, Hon. Tillman Thomas, has welcomed a preliminary report which indicates that economic activity in Grenada expanded during the first half of 2011 by 1.7% compared to the same period in 2010.

According to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) this performance reflected “increases in all sectors” with the exception of construction, financial intermediation and public administration, defense and compulsory social security, which declined by 3.7%, 1.5% and 0.7% respectively.

The report noted that increases were recorded in all the other industries with the largest increases recorded for hotels and restaurants (4.1%), manufacturing (3.3%) and transport, storage and communications (2.7%) which together contributed to 22.0% of real GDP.

“This ECCB report supports our position that despite the global economic crisis and the shortsighted view of some, our management of the economy is leading to a turnaround and we are beginning to see growth,” Prime Minister Thomas said Tuesday.

He welcomed the data, which showed that value added for the hotels and restaurants industry, one of the leading employment sectors in Grenada, increased by approximately 4.1% in the first six months of 2011, influenced mainly by a 9.4% increase in the number of visitors staying in paid accommodation.

“We have worked with the tourism sector generally to improve the product, while we have partnered with the hotel sector directly by providing incentives to maintain employment levels. We are proud that those efforts have worked and are now bearing fruit for our country,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister expressed confidence, based on his government’s two year work programme, that other sectors including construction, will once again begin to contribute positively to growth in real GDP and increase the island’s employment levels.

According to the ECCB, the other areas of improvement include manufacturing by 3.3%, value added in the transport, storage and communications industries increased by 2.7%, output in the wholesale and retail trade industry increased by 0.4 per cent, agricultural activities increased marginally by 0.04 per cent, fishing production expanded by 41.3% while real estate, renting and business activities, increased by 1.3 per cent.

Based on the report, economic activity in Grenada is expected to expand in 2011 by 1.6% based on the projected improvements in the “hotels and restaurants”, “transport, storage and communications” and “real estate, renting and business activities” industries.

In the ECCB’s view economic activity in Grenada is expected to improve further with projections of 2.7% and 3.3% projected for 2012 and 2013 respectively.

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