Economy - overview:
The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily
dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism alone accounts
for more than 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half of
the archipelago's labor force. Steady growth in tourism receipts and
a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had
led to solid GDP growth in recent years, but the slowdown in the US
economy and the attacks of 11 September 2001 held back growth in
these sectors in 2002. Manufacturing and agriculture together
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, which depends on growth in the US, the source of
most of the visitors.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $4.59 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
0.1% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $15,300 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 3%
industry: 7%
services: 90% (1999 est.)
Population below poverty line:
NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.8% (2001 est.)
Labor force:
156,000 (1999)
Labor force - by occupation:
tourism 50%, other services 40%, industry 5%, agriculture 5% (1999
est.)
Unemployment rate:
6.9% (2001 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $918.5 million
expenditures: $956.5 million, including capital expenditures of
$106.7 million (FY 99/00)
Industries:
tourism, banking, e-commerce, cement, oil refining and
transshipment, salt, rum, aragonite, pharmaceuticals, spiral-welded
steel pipe
Industrial production growth rate:
NA%
Electricity - production:
1.56 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 100%
hydro: 0%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
1.451 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
23,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Agriculture - products:
citrus, vegetables; poultry
Exports:
$560.7 million (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
fish and crawfish; rum, salt, chemicals; fruit and vegetables
Exports - partners:
US 39.1%, Germany 15.4%, Spain 10.8%, France 7.4%, Poland 4.6%,
Switzerland 4.3% (2002)
Imports:
$1.86 billion (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, mineral
fuels; food and live animals
Imports - partners:
US 20.3%, South Korea 20.1%, Germany 11.5%, Norway 11.5%, Japan
10%, Italy 7.2% (2002)
Debt - external:
$371.6 million (2001)
Economic aid - recipient:
$9.8 million (1995)
Currency:
Bahamian dollar (BSD)
Currency code:
BSD
Exchange rates:
Bahamian dollars per US dollar - 1 (2002), 1 (2001), 1 (2000), 1
(1999), 1 (1998)
Fiscal year:
1 July - 30 June