MEFD July 2020

Published: Monday August 31st, 2020

Domestic economic developments for the month of July continued to be dominated by the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Tourism remained largely offline, adversely impacted by globally imposed travel restrictions, which resulted in the high value-added air segment and sea traffic grounding to a halt. However, the restart of foreign investment-led projects and post hurricane reconstruction work provided some stimulus to the construction sector. Meanwhile, both the decrease in foreign exchange purchases and the contracted volume of electronic payments transactions, underscored the significant reduction in domestic consumption expenditures during the review period. In the monetary sector, the growth in bank liquidity slowed, as the rise in domestic credit, mainly to the public sector, outweighed gains in the deposit base. Further, external reserves contracted during the review month, largely reflecting the falloff in foreign currency inflows from real sector activities.

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