Economical overview
Grenada is heavily dependent on tourism and
agriculture. The small economy is vulnerable to weather
and wind as well as to fluctuations in the world
economy, which became clear after the hurricanes of
2004-2005 and the international financial crisis a few
years later. During the 2010s, the economic situation
improved significantly.
It has taken many years for Grenada's economy to
recover from Hurricane Ivan in 2004, when the economy
almost stopped, Hurricane Emily struck in 2005, and the
financial crisis that burst in 2008. Export earnings
from nutmeg (see Agriculture and Fisheries) have not yet
reached the levels. shortly after the turn of the
millennium and the country has yet another high
government debt. Another major problem is the high
unemployment rate, which in 2016 was estimated at 29 per
cent, while youth unemployment is even higher. Over the
past decades, the service sector has gradually become
increasingly important, while the importance of
agriculture has diminished. Grenada has no major natural
resources of its own and the industry is yet to develop.
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Countryaah.com:
Major imports by Grenada, covering a full list of top products imported by the country and trade value for each product category.
Grenada received multi-year support from the
International Monetary Fund's (IMF) loan program after
the hurricanes and assistance in obtaining grants from
donors to build up what was destroyed. In October 2005,
most foreign lenders wrote down Grenada's soaring debts.
Initially, the extensive reconstruction work led to an
upswing, but the financial crisis of 2008 had severe
repercussions on the tourism sector, with the result
that unemployment and poverty increased.
In order to increase revenue to the Treasury, the
government raised some taxes, including on fuel, and in
2010 VAT was introduced. The government also received a
new three-year support from the IMF to deal with the
financial problems. But the attempts to implement a
series of economic reforms in exchange for the favorable
loans were largely unsuccessful. Gradually, economic
growth regained momentum, much as a result of an upturn
in agriculture and tourism. In addition, the government
had succeeded in renegotiating most of Grenada's loans
and by the end of 2016, government debt had fallen to 83
percent of GDP from 108 percent four years earlier.
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Abbreviationfinder.org: Check this abbreviation website to find three letter ISO codes for all countries in the world, including GRD which represents the country of Grenada.
Since the mid-1990s, Grenada has sought to reduce its
dependence on the sensitive tourism and agricultural
sectors, including by attracting foreign finance
operations to establish itself in the country under
favorable conditions. Grenada has been offering
citizenship in exchange for investment in the country
since 2014 for a certain amount of money.
At the beginning of the 2000s, Grenada received
international criticism for the lack of oversight of
foreign banking operations, which was considered to
encourage money laundering. Since then, the country has
strengthened surveillance and closed many banks, but
Grenada was still included in the US and EU lists of
areas that need to be kept under surveillance due to
money laundering or unclear tax rules at the end of the
2010s.
FACTS - FINANCE
GDP per person
US $ 10,834 (2018)
Total GDP
US $ 1,207 million (2018)
GDP growth
4.8 percent (2018)
Agriculture's share of GDP
4.9 percent (2018)
Manufacturing industry's share of GDP
3.1 percent (2018)
The service sector's share of GDP
66.7 percent (2018)
Inflation
1.0 percent (2019)
Government debt's share of GDP
63.5 percent (2018)
External debt
US $ 532 million (2017)
Currency
eastern Caribbean dollar
Assistance per person
US $ 54 (2017)
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