Overview: A per capita income of $8,700 gives Barbados one of the highest standards of living of all the small island states of the eastern Caribbean. Historically, the economy was based on the cultivation of sugar cane and related activities. In recent years, however, the economy has diversified into manufacturing and tourism. The tourist industry is now a major employer of the labor force and a primary source of foreign exchange. The economy slowed in 1990-92 as Bridgetown's difficulty in financing its deficits caused it to exert control over domestic demands

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $2.2 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: -3% (1992)

National product per capita: $8,700 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 6.1% (1992)

Unemployment rate: 23% (1992)

Budget:
revenues: $547 million
expenditures: $620 million, including capital expenditures of $60 million (FY92-93)

Exports: $158 million (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities: sugar and molasses, rum, other foods and beverages, chemicals, electrical components, clothing
partners: US 13%, UK 13%, Trinidad and Tobago 9%, Windward Islands 7.8%

Imports: $465 million (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities: machinery, foodstuffs, construction materials, chemicals, fuel, electrical components
partners: US 33%, UK 11%, Trinidad and Tobago 11%, Japan 5%

External debt: $652 million (1991 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate -1.3% (1991); accounts for 10% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 152,100 kW
production: 540 million kWh
consumption per capita: 2,118 kWh (1992)

Industries: tourism, sugar, light manufacturing, component assembly for export, petroleum

Agriculture: accounts for 6% of GDP; major cash crop is sugarcane; other crops - vegetables, cotton; not self-sufficient in food

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $15 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $171 million

Currency: 1 Barbadian dollar (Bds$) = 100 cents
Exchange rates: Barbadian dollars (Bds$) per US$1 - 2.0113 (fixed rate)

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

NOTE: The information regarding Barbados on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Barbados Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Barbados Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.