Statin reports 6.7 per cent decline in economy Jan-March
The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) has reported a 6.7 per cent decline in the economy for January to March or during the first quarter of this year when compared to the same period in 2020.
This latest output by Statin is one percentage point more than that released earlier by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) in its preliminary estimates last month, which reported a 5.7 per cent contraction.
Statin in its report said that this performance follows previous quarters of contractions and stems from the continued adverse effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic on real value added to gross domestic product (GDP).
During the period the impact was predominantly noticeable in the services industries, which includes the severely affected tourism sector, which fell by 9.9 per cent. The goods producing industries, however, saw a better performance as it went up by 2.6 per cent.
“All industries within the services industries declined, with the exception of the producers of government services which remained relatively unchanged. Declines were recorded for: hotels & restaurants (55.9 per cent), other services (21.9 per cent), transport, storage & communication (7.8 per cent), electricity & water supply (6.9 per cent), wholesale retail trade; repairs; installation of machinery & equipment (5.1 per cent), real estate, renting & business activities (1.9 per cent) and finance & insurance services (1.2 per cent),” Statin informed in a recent news bulletin.
The goods producing industry, on the other hand, recorded higher outputs with growth of 10.5 per cent in the construction sector and 7.1 per cent in mining and quarrying. Declines were, however, reported for critical sectors such as agriculture, forestry & fishing which went down by two per cent and manufacturing by 1.1 per cent.
“When compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, total value added for the economy grew by 0.6 per cent. The economy declined by 11.0 per cent for the fiscal year 2020/2021 when compared to fiscal year 2019/2020, reflecting the impact of COVID-19,” the release also stated.
