Bahamas, The Economy - 2006

Economy - overview:
The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism together with tourism-driven construction and manufacturing accounts for approximately 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half of the archipelago's labor force. Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had led to solid GDP growth in recent years, but the slowdown in the US economy and the attacks of 11 September 2001 held back growth in these sectors in 2001-03. The current government has presided over a period of economic recovery and an upturn in large-scale private sector investments in tourism. Financial services constitute the second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy, accounting for about 15% of GDP. However, since December 2000, when the government enacted new regulations on the financial sector, many international businesses have left The Bahamas. Manufacturing and agriculture together contribute approximately a tenth of GDP and show little growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors. Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the fortunes of the tourism sector, which depends on growth in the US, the source of more than 80% of the visitors.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$5.696 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
$5.779 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$18,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 3%
industry: 7%
services: 90% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
176,300 (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 5%, industry 5%, tourism 50%, other services 40% (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
10.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
9.3% (2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: 27%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.2% (2004)

Budget:
revenues: $1.03 billion
expenditures: $1.03 billion; including capital expenditures of $130 million (FY04/05)

Agriculture - products:
citrus, vegetables; poultry

Industries:
tourism, banking, cement, oil transshipment, salt, rum, aragonite, pharmaceuticals, spiral-welded steel pipe

Industrial production growth rate:
NA%

Electricity - production:
1.81 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - consumption:
1.683 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
23,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
transhipments of 29,000 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
$469.3 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
mineral products and salt, animal products, rum, chemicals, fruit and vegetables

Exports - partners:
US 40.5%, Poland 13.4%, Spain 12.3%, Germany 5.9%, France 4.3% (2004)

Imports:
$1.82 billion (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, mineral fuels; food and live animals

Imports - partners:
US 22.4%, South Korea 18.9%, Brazil 9.2%, Japan 7.9%, Italy 7.8%, Venezuela 6.6% (2004)

Debt - external:
$342.6 million (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$5 million (2004)

Currency (code):
Bahamian dollar (BSD)

Exchange rates:
Bahamian dollars per US dollar - 1 (2005), 1 (2004), 1 (2003), 1 (2002), 1 (2001)