08/26/2014 // eso // Narina Ebanks // (press release)
The Cayman Islands’ gross domestic product (GDP) expanded anew by an estimated 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2014. Among the production sectors, the major sources of growth were hotels and restaurants; wholesale and retail trade; transport storage and communication; real estate, renting and business activities; and construction.
“The first quarter performance suggests that the economy is on a sustainable recovery path,” Hon. Marco Archer, Minister for Finance and Economic Development stated. “Furthermore, it is broad-based as a number of sectors have contributed to it. Given this performance, I am cautiously optimistic that we will see an overall GDP growth of 1.9 percent in 2014,” he further said.
The economic growth occurred amidst further improvement in the fiscal surplus from CI$131.8 million in the first quarter of 2013 to CI$149.4 million this year. This was generated by strong growth in revenue and a decline in total expenditure. The central government’s total outstanding debt thus fell to CI$558.3 million as at March 2014, as compared to CI$582.6 million a year ago.
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