Economic Activity Caribbean Community Countries
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ECLA/POS 76/6 ECONOMIC ACTIVITY — 1975 — CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY COUNTRIES UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR LATIN AMERICA OFFICE FOR THE CARIBBEAN ECLA/POS 76/6 Dates 15 August 1976 ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR LATIN AMERICA Office for the Caribbean ECONOMIC ACTIVITY « 1975 - CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY COUNTRIES (Prepared by Mr0 ¥0L. Whittingham with the assistance of Mr«, Ho Francis and Mr, McD» Rodney - Research Assistants) FEEFAOE This is the fifth publication under the title Economic Activity - Caribbean Community Countries» As in previous issues emphasis is placed on the most recent period, in this case 1975» but revisions for earlier years are also incorporated,, In addition, there is some increase in the scope and coverage of the Survey partly in response to comments on previous issues» It should be noted that the Bahamas is included for the first time this year® A separate Country Note has also been prepared for Grenada for the first timea Previously Grenada was included in the Section dealing with the West Indies Associated States» Despite the limitations of the data, the publication bringing together as it does data on all the CAE!COM countries, appears to meet some of the needs of Governments and business offices« as well as regional and other organizations interested in economic and social developments in the Caribbean sub-regions. 15 August 1976 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION i - iv PART Is SUB-REGIONAL SUMMARY A. EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION 1 - 6 Bo SUMMARY OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY AREA THE DOMESTIC SECTOR 7 - 24 (a) The Goods Producing Sectors 10 » 13 (b) Services Sectors 13 - 17 (c) Price Trends 17 - 24 THE EXTERNAL SECTOR 25 - 32 (a) Esternai Trade 25 - 30 (b) Balance of Payments 30 - 32 STATISTICAL APPENDIX 33 46 PART lis BAHAMAS COUNTRY NOTES 1 - 29 PART III; BARBADOS COUNTRY NOTES 1 - 24 PART IVs BELIZE COUNTRY NOTES 1 - 21 PART Ys GRENADA COUNTRY NOTES 1 - 25 PART VI â GUYANA COUNTRY NOTES 1 19 PART Vils JAMAICA COUNTRY NOTES 1 - 30 PART VIII s TRINIDAD & TOBAGO COUNTRY NOTES 1 - 27 PART IX s WEST INDIES ASSOCIATED STATES COUNTRY NOTES l 34 SELECTED LIST OF STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS AND SOURCES =. i - INTRODUCTION These country notes and the CARICOM sub-regional summary have been developed from those that were prepared for inclusion in the Economic Survey of Latin America, 1975s published by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) <. As a result of the avail- ability of new and revised data, substantial revisions have been made to some of the country notes and statistical tables originally prepared for that Surveys Similar country surveys for some other Caribbean countries have been prepared by the ECLA Mexico Office and the ECLA Headquarters at Santiago, Chile, The geographical coverage of this document extends to the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize and the West Indies Associated States»-^ This coverage corresponds with present participation in the Caribbean Community which is a priority area of responsibity for the ECLA Office for the Caribbean» Two major difficulties are encountered in preparing ti®ru; notes. One is the unavailability of current data particularly in the less developed countries of the sub=»region} at the time the Survey must be prepared for publication® The second is the relatively narrow scope of the statistics that are collected in most of the countries® These factors limit the coverage of the notes and necessitate the making of crude projections and estimates on very sketchy bases* 1/ The West Indies Associated States (Antigua, Dominica, Sts Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, St® Lucia and St® Vincent) and Montserrat are together an Associate Member of ECLA® Montserrat is included vith. the West Indies Associated States though strictly speaking its political status is not "9SS,9a a State in Association with the United Kingdom," but a colony of the UK enjoying internal self-governmenta Grenada became independent in February 1974, and the Bahamas in July 1973» The latter two countries became full members of ECLA at its 16th Session held in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in May 1975„ /of the - ii - Of the information utilized, monetary and fiscal data and retail price indexes are the most currently available. Official detailed external trade statistics are published with at best, a twelve to eighteen-month time lag. Presently, detailed trade figures for 1974 have been published only for Bahamas, Jamaica, Montserrat and Trinidad & Tohago. Preliminary global external trade figures such as total exports and imports, however, are generally available within six months of the period of reference for most countries® A few adjustments have been made to intra- CARICOM trade data especially where discrepancies have been observed between origins and destinations of goods, and for this reason some differences with national publications may be noted here, Aggregated data in the Summary Section generally relate to the Caribbean Common Market Countries only (i0e8 excluding the Bahamas) except for Gross Domestic Product data from which Belize is also excluded because of the absence of current National Accounts figures or sufficient basic data to permit making estimates. As of early 1976, National Accounts work had begun in both the Bahamas and Belize. The revising and updating of series of National Accounts estimates are underway in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tohago® It is hoped that all this work will he completed during 19?6f so that the revised estimates can he incorporated into the next issue of this publication« In order to arrive at sub-regional aggregates it is necessary to convert much of the data to a single unit of account, The unit chosen is the Eastern Caribbean (EC) dollar with an exchange rate to the Pound Sterling of £1 = EC$4,80 in the period under review»^ Value figures for Belize have been converted at the rate Bze^UQO^A EC$i,20, The Trinidad and Tobago dollar had a one-to- 2/ The link of the EC dollar to the Pound Sterling has been severed as of 7 July 1976 and now the link is established with the US dollar at the rate US$1,00 = EC$2„70. 3/ Currency unit now officially designated Belize (Bze) dollar® /one relationship one relationship with the Eastern Caribbean dollar until 27 May 1976o The Barbados dollar had a one-to-one relationship with 4/ the EC dollar up to 5 July 19759 the conversion rate used for the year is Bds$l„00 = EC$1„0712. The Guyana dollar was at par with the EC dollar up to 1971» As a result of devaluation of the Guyana dollar the rate used since 1972 is G$1S00 = EC$0.92105, The Jamaica dollar was converted at the rate of J$1„00 = EC$2e40 up to 1972; but the rate used for 1973-^and 1974 is J#1»00 = EC$2.1746 and for 1975 J$1»Q0 = EC$2.3869. These adjustments are as a consequence of the two devaluations of the Jamaica dollar on 17 January and 20 February 1973» With respect to the Bahamas, on« Bahamas dollar is taken as equivalent to EC$1*9219 in 1972» 111 1973 Bflo00 = EC$1«, 9592, in 1974 B$l„ 00 = EC$2*0532 and for 1975 B|l„00 = EC$2S1697» The main sources of the economic and statistical information used in preparation of the Country Notes are listed at the end of this document» Most of the data were supplied by the Statistical Offices, Planning Units, Government Ministries and other national Agencies concerned with collection and analysis of these data, The Gross Domestic Product figures for ihe West Indies Associated 3tates for early years were derived mainly from data published by ihe Office of the British Development Division in the Caribbean (located at Barbados)® GDP estimates for most recent years were made in the ECLA Office for the Caribbean, The East Caribbean Currency Authority provided monetary data relating to the West Indies Associated States. In some instances, information on tourism has been furnished directly by national tourist organizations® We hereby express our gratitude for the co-operation received from so many organizations and individuals, 4/ On this date, the Barbados dollar was aligned to the US dollar at the rate US$lo00 = Bds#2o00„ 5/' Calculated essentially as the weighted average of daily selling rates between 1 January and 31 March and average mid-month and end of month rates from March to December,, PART I SUB-REGIONAL SUMMARY A. EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION Ao EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION The initial step toxrards tlie current economic integration efforts in the Caribbean area dates back to the Dickenson Bay Conference, 1965? which resulted in the first draft Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Agreement® It took another three years before a CARIFTA text acceptable to eleven countries in the sub-region was finalized« These trade arrangements which came into operation on 1 May 1968, diverged from the general pattern of most similar trade agreements in that all intra-area trade in goods qualifying for area treatment immediately became free of duty, with only a few specific exemptions. Provisions were incorporated into the Agreement for progressive elimination l/ of duty on the exempted items over specified intervals®^ While the main emphasis was on promotion of intra-regional trade, considerable attention was given to formulating measures in pursuance of the wider objectives of the Agreement to "encourage balanced and progressive development",9"ifliensify the integration process",,......,, and "ensure that the benefit;* o . 9 « „ are equally distributed." The measures eventually agreed vers adopted within the framework of the Caribbean Community and Common