Monthly Economic and Financial Developments, November 2010

Published: Wednesday December 22nd, 2010

The domestic economy maintained a stable path during the review period, amid modest improvement in tourism activity and relatively subdued construction sector investments and private sector demand. Monetary developments featured strong gains in both liquidity and external reserves, buoyed by one-off inflows associated with the conversion of a domestic commercial banking entity to a subsidiary. Tourism performance remained positive during the January to October period, as total visitor arrivals increased by an estimated 14.4% to 4.3 million, extending the 5.4% improvement in the same period of 2009. Sea traffic was boosted by 18.2% and the high value-added air segment by 4.3%. Disaggregated by port of entry, visitors to New Providence expanded by 8.3%, supported by respective gains of 4.1% and 10.8% in the air and sea components. Arrivals to Grand Bahama firmed by 41.4%, as a 55.1% improvement in cruise visitors—due to the rerouting and return of several cruise lines—offset the 6.9% contraction in air passengers. In the Family Islands, the 14.9% hike in arrivals reflected significant increases in both air and sea traffic.

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