JAMAICA’S hotel and restaurant industry is estimated to have grown by 2.5 per cent for the October to December 2018 quarter, attributable to increased hotel room capacity, flight frequency as well as the introduction of new flights.

The industry, which contributed to an overall economic growth of 1.7 per cent for the quarter, was influenced by an estimated 3.7 per cent growth in foreign national arrivals, due to increased visitors from the United States.

Statistics revealed by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) on Wednesday, showed that stopover arrivals from the USA increased by 8.2 per cent to 399,269 people; while stopover arrivals from Canada and Europe declined by 4.5 per cent to 106, 521 people and 1.1 per cent to 85,608 people respectively.

Cruise passenger arrivals to the country also declined by 12 per cent to 521,810 people due to contractions in the number of passengers arriving at Falmouth and Montego Bay. These declines outweighed the increase in arrivals recorded at the Ocho Rios Port.

According to Director General of the PIOJ, Dr Wayne Henry, total visitor expenditure was US$840.4 million, an increase of 11.6 per cent, relative to the corresponding quarter of 2017.

Overall, Jamaica’s economy grew by an estimated 1.7 per cent for the October to December 2018 quarter compared to the corresponding quarter of 2017. The improved quarterly performance brought six consecutive years of economic growth for Jamaica and the highest annual growth average of 1.8 per cent over the past 12 years.

The quarterly growth was led by Jamaica’s Goods-Producing Industry, which grew by an estimated 4.2 per cent, reflecting growth in all industries, particularly the mining and quarrying and construction industries.

Real value added for the mining and quarrying industry grew by an estimated 22.9 per cent, reflecting an increase in alumina production, outweighing the decline in crude bauxite production. Alumina production grew by 30.8 per cent, driven by increased capacity utilisation at the Alpart and Jamalco refineries.

Further growth in alumina was stymied by production downtime at the Alpart refinery, due to technical issues, while crude bauxite production decreased by 19.4 per cent, largely reflecting a fall in demand by third party customers.

During the quarter, the alumina capacity utilisation rate increased by 16.3 percentage points to 69.2 per cent while the bauxite capacity utilisation rate contracted by 13.9 percentage points to 57.7 per cent, compared with the corresponding quarter of 2017.

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY UP 3.5%

As for the construction industry, real value added grew by an estimated 3.5 per cent, reflecting growth in both building construction and other construction components. Activities in the other construction component of the industry were supported by a 61.6 per cent increase in asphalt production.

The growth in building construction was supported by increased activities: in housing starts, up 54 per cent; total value of mortgages provided by the National Housing Trust, up 17.2 per cent; and work-in-progress on previously started developments.

The main drivers of growth in the non-residential category included the construction and renovation of commercial buildings.

The other construction component is estimated to have increased, due to higher expenditure by six of the seven reporting entities, including the National Works Agency which disbursed $7 billion, up 112.7 per cent; Port Authority of Jamaica which disbursed $3.7 billion, up 92 per cent; and Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd which disbursed $6.1 billion, up 6 per cent.

This outweighed the impact of lower disbursement by the National Water Commission which disbursed $395.5 million, down 63.2 per cent compared with the similar quarter of 2017.