ECCB has gloomy economic outlook for 2009
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Contact: Shannon Lebourne
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 – The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Monetary Council has predicted that economic activity in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) will contract by 2% in 2009.
The ECCB says economic growth in major sectors like construction and tourism will decline in light of the gloomy outlook for the global economy which continues to be shrouded by uncertainty.
Press Officer in the Office of the Prime Minister Mr. Winston Springer says the ECCB has indicated that downward trends will continue to persist with regard to monetary and credit conditions to reflect contraction in growth in the domestic economy.
“In a communique issued at the end of the 65th Meeting of the Monetary Council of the ECCB in Dominica, Prime Minister Hon. Stephenson King who represented Saint Lucia, says the Council noted that monetary and credit conditions in the Currency Union were negatively affected by conditions in the real sectors which had deteriorated significantly in recent times”.
The ECCB Monetary Council also indicated that the impact of the global economic crisis intensified in the first four months of 2009.
Springer says evidence of this, is a 3.9% decline in GDP index, relative to the same period in 2008.
“The fall in the index resulted from declines in economic activity in the hotels and restaurants, construction, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade sectors. In addition, inflows of foreign direct investment and remittances were expected and estimated to have contracted, business confidence fell and unemployment levels increased,” Springer reported. |
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