Saint Lucia

The island nation has been able to attract foreign business and investment, especially in its offshore banking and tourism industries, with a surge in foreign direct investment in 2006, attributed to the construction of several tourism projects. Although crops such as bananas, mangos, and avocados continue to be grown for export, tourism provides Saint Lucia’s main source of income and the industry is the island’s biggest employer. Tourism is the main source of foreign exchange, although tourism sector revenues declined with the global economic downturn as US and European travel dropped in 2009. The manufacturing sector is the most diverse in the Eastern Caribbean area, and the government is trying to revitalize the banana industry, although recent hurricanes have caused exports to contract. Saint Lucia is vulnerable to a variety of external shocks including volatile tourism receipts, natural disasters, and dependence on foreign oil. The public debt-to-GDP ratio is about 77% and high debt servicing obligations constrain the KING administration’s ability to respond to adverse external shocks. Economic fundamentals remain solid, even though unemployment needs to be reduced.

$1.789 billion (2010 est.)

$1.769 billion (2009 est.)

$1.866 billion (2008 est.)

$1 billion (2010 est.)

1.1% (2010 est.)

-5.2% (2009 est.)

0.7% (2008 est.)

$11,100 (2010 est.)

$11,000 (2009 est.)

$11,700 (2008 est.)

79,700 (2007)

20% (2003 est.)

NA%

1.9% (2007 est.)

6.5% (31 December 2009)

6.5% (31 December 2008)

10.58% (31 December 2009 est.)

10.08% (31 December 2008 est.)

$244.3 million (31 December 2009)

$245 million (31 December 2008)

$1.094 billion (31 December 2009)

$1.061 billion (31 December 2008)

$1.378 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$1.217 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

bananas, coconuts, vegetables, citrus, root crops, cocoa

clothing, assembly of electronic components, beverages, corrugated cardboard boxes, tourism; lime processing, coconut processing

NA%

325 million kWh (2007 est.)

302.2 million kWh (2007 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

0 bbl/day (2009 est.)

3,000 bbl/day (2009 est.)

0 bbl/day (2007 est.)

2,747 bbl/day (2007 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.)

0 cu m (1 January 2010 est.)

-$199 million (2007 est.)

$288 million (2006)

bananas 41%, clothing, cocoa, vegetables, fruits, coconut oil

Spain 29.41%, UK 15.28%, South Korea 10.54%, US 9.75%, India 9.52% (2009)

$791 million (2006)

food 23%, manufactured goods 21%, machinery and transportation equipment 19%, chemicals, fuels

Brazil 83.44%, US 4.67%, Trinidad and Tobago 4.56% (2009)

$257 million (2004)

East Caribbean dollars (XCD) per US dollar - 2.7 (2007), 2.7 (2006), 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7 (2003)