Bahamas

The Bahamas is one of the wealthiest Caribbean countries 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. Prior to 2006, a steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences led to solid GDP growth but since then tourism receipts have begun to drop off. The global recession in 2009 took a sizeable toll on the Bahamas, resulting in a contraction in GDP and a widening budget deficit. The decline continued in 2010 as tourism from the US and sector investment lagged. Financial services constitute the second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy and, when combined with business services, account for about 36% of GDP. However, the financial sector currently is smaller than it has been in the past because of the enactment of new and more strict financial regulations in 2000 that caused many international businesses to relocate elsewhere. Manufacturing and agriculture combined 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.

$8.878 billion (2010 est.)

$8.923 billion (2009 est.)

$9.285 billion (2008 est.)

$7.538 billion (2010 est.)

-0.5% (2010 est.)

-3.9% (2009 est.)

-1.7% (2008 est.)

$28,600 (2010 est.)

$29,000 (2009 est.)

$30,500 (2008 est.)

184,000 (2009)

7.6% (2006 est.)

9.3% (2004)

2.4% (2007 est.)

5.25% (31 December 2009)

5.25% (31 December 2008)

5.5% (31 December 2009 est.)

5.5% (31 December 2008 est.)

$1.284 billion (31 December 2009)

$1.275 billion (31 December 2008)

$5.991 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$5.893 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$7.993 billion (31 December 2009)

$7.883 billion (31 December 2008)

$NA

citrus, vegetables; poultry

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

NA%

2.045 billion kWh (2007 est.)

1.902 billion kWh (2007 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

0 bbl/day (2009 est.)

36,000 bbl/day (2009 est.)

transshipments of 41,570 bbl/day (2007 est.)

20,560 bbl/day (2009 est.)

0 bbl (1 January 2010 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

NA cu m (1 January 2009 est.)

-$283.2 million (2009 est.)

-$1.442 billion (2007 est.)

$674 million (2006)

mineral products and salt, animal products, rum, chemicals, fruit and vegetables

US 35.99%, Singapore 18.64%, Poland 12.1%, Germany 6.24% (2009)

$2.401 billion (2006)

machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, mineral fuels; food and live animals

US 27.23%, South Korea 20.08%, Japan 14.55%, Singapore 5.89%, China 4.75%, Venezuela 4.26%, Italy 4.12% (2009)

$342.6 million (2004 est.)

Bahamian dollars (BSD) per US dollar - 1 (2009), 1 (2008), 1 (2007), 1 (2006)