Monthly Economic and Financial Developments, February 2017

Published: Monday April 3rd, 2017

Overview

Domestic economic conditions remained subdued during the month of February, reflecting the ongoing softness in tourism activity; however, construction sector output continued to be supported by a number of varied-scale foreign investment projects—including the multi-billion dollar Baha Mar development. Indications are that inflationary pressures stayed well contained, although the slight rise in global oil prices resulted in an uptick in domestic energy costs. In the monetary sector, both bank liquidity and external reserves contracted mildly over the review period.

Real Sector Tourism

Preliminary indicators suggest that the tourism sector’s performance was relatively weak during the review period, as inferred from reduced foreign currency inflows through commercial banks. The most recent statistics on visitor traffic from the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD), for the first two months of the year, showed a 4.1% decline in visitor departures, relative to a 2.3% uptick in the prior year. This outturn was largely due to a 3.9% falloff in United States passengers, while the number of visitors returning to ‘other’ countries also narrowed, by 5.3%, in comparison to the first two months of 2016. More comprehensive data on visitor activity is not yet available for the year.

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