The Jamaican economy experienced real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.8 per cent for the 2018 calendar year, according to Dr Wayne Henry, director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
Speaking at a PIOJ quarterly press briefing today Henry said that this represents the sixth consecutive year of real GDP growth.
Real GDP is an inflation-adjusted measure that reflects the value of all goods and services produced by an economy in a given year.
Henry attributed the growth to an increase in external demand for Jamaica’s export industries, especially mining and quarrying and hotels and restaurants.
This, he said, was supported by higher levels of output in the economies of Jamaica’s main trading partners.
The PIOJ head added domestic demands underpinned by record levels of employment and improved macroeconomic stability reflected in a relatively low inflation and the lowering of interest rates also contributed to the improvement.
Industries recording the strongest growth during the year were mining and quarrying up 32.5 per cent; agriculture, forestry and fishing up 4.1 per cent; construction up 2.8 per cent; and hotels and restaurant up 1.7 per cent.
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