St. John’s, Antigua, March 5, 2024. The Statistics Division in the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance releases the 2022 GDP-P estimates.
Antigua and Barbuda’s annual gross domestic product at market price stands at EC$ 4.46 billion in 2022 a 9.5% or EC$ 387 million increased from EC$ 4.06 billion in 2021.
The economic activity expanded in real terms (that is, after taking account of price changes) in Accommodation and food service activities (+59.4%), Transportation and storage (+18.9%), Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (+13.1%), and Public administration, defence and compulsory social security (+6.2%), and Construction (+5.3%).
Representing the economy’s largest growing industry over the one year period, Accommodation and food service activities grew by 59.4% and contributed 11.1 percentage points to the total change in GDP. This was on account of the recovery in the tourism sector, which recorded an increase in passenger arrivals from the United Kingdom (+42.6%), the United States of America (+39.1%), and Canada (+6.7%).
Transport and storage recorded growth of 18.9% with an overall contribution of 7.6 percentage points to the total change in GDP. Road transport growth of 9.2% resulted from increases in construction, stay-over arrivals, and cruise ship passenger arrivals. Sea transport growth of 15.2% resulted from an increase in the number of cruise ship passenger arrivals. Air transport growth of 95.0% resulted from increases in visitor arrivals for all major airlines and student arrivals for the students who attend the University of the West Indies Five Island Campus (UWI) as new programs are introduced and an increased enrollment into the American University of Antigua (AUA) which is the main medical learning institution.
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles recorded growth of 13.1% contributing 15.7 percentage points to the total change in GDP. This was due to an increase in the value of imports of construction materials with growth of 20.6%, and an increase in land transportation, manufacturing of goods, supermarkets wholesale and distribution centers.
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