Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter
HUGHES
THE DAMAGE as a result of Hurricanes Dennis and Emily has cost the country's gross domestic product (GDP) almost $6 billion, according to estimates by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
This was revealed by director general of the PIOJ, Dr. Wesley Hughes, at yesterday's press briefing of the quarterly review of the economy at the PIOJ's office in New Kingston.
"The cost of the damage and losses (to infrastructure and productive assets) associated with the hurricanes, from our estimate - is approximately $5.976 billion," said Dr. Hughes. Specifically, the cost and damage is as follows:
Productive sector - $747 million
Social sector - $260 million
Infrastructure - $4.8 billion
Incidentals - $163 million
Real GDP, according to Dr. Hughes, grew by 2.7 per cent, just short of the three per cent the PIOJ had anticipated.
The director general noted that global trends also had a negative effect on the country's economic activity during the quarter.
"The growth performance during the period should also be viewed against the background of external shocks [which were] not favourable. There was a general upward movement in interest rates in the United States, and there was a general sharp upward movement in oil prices globally."
UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT
Based on the "internal shocks - and the external picture," argued Dr. Hughes, "the economy was operating in a very unstable environment, and imparted some fairly negative impact overall on our situation."
Specifically, as it relates to real sector developments, the services sector went up by 0.8 per cent. Dr. Hughes acknowledged, "Growth in the services sector was a little bit more moderate than the goods producing sector. However, these are the sectors that comprise the larger component of the economy. Over 65 per cent of our GDP can be found in the services sector."
CONTRIBUTORS TO GROWTH
Within the services sector, all major subcategories recorded growth, with the exception of the miscellaneous services (as was the case in the second quarter) - which went down two per cent. The main contributors to growth in this sector - similar to the last quarter - were electricity and water (up 10.5 per cent), distributive trade (up (0.8 per cent) and real estate and business services (up by two per cent).
As it relates to the goods-producing sector, growth was posted in mining and quarrying (16.2 per cent), manufacturing (three per cent), construction and installation (6.7 per cent). Agriculture, which has suffered heavily for the year and a half, recorded its first growth (2.5 per cent) since the second quarter of 2004.
