Marco Archer, the Cayman Islands Minister of Finance & Economic Development has announced the Cayman Islands’ First Quarter Economic Report 2014 that was prepared by the Economics and Statistics Office.

He said the performance during the first quarter of 2014 pointed to stable economic recovery and he was “cautiously optimistic that we will see an overall GDP [Gross Domestic Product] growth of 1.9 percent in 2014.”

Note: The best way to understand a country’s economy is by looking at its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This economic indicator measures the country’s total output. This includes everything produced by all the people and all the companies in the country. The components of GDP are: Personal Consumption Expenditures plus Business Investment plus Government Spending plus (Exports minus Imports).

THE CAYMAN ISLANDS’ FIRST QUARTER ECONOMIC REPORT 2014

July 2014 The Economics and Statistics Office

Overview

Gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms was estimated to have expanded at an annualised rate of 1.5% in the first quarter of 2014. The forecast GDP growth for the year is placed at 1.9%.

The Consumer Price Index increased by 2.3% mainly due to higher price indices for food and non-alcoholic beverage, restaurants and hotels, household equipment, education, and miscellaneous goods and services which were offset by a decrease in the housing and utilities index.

Total merchandise imports rose by 5.0% to register at $203.0 million as non- fuel imports increased by 7.1%.

Current work permits fell by 2.9% to total 19,978.

Money supply (M2) expanded by 2.2% due to increases in both foreign currency

deposits and CI dollar-denominated money.

Domestic credit contracted by 1.6% as credit to the public sector and to the private sector declined by 6.3% and 1.0% respectively.

The weighted average lending rate fell from 6.29% to 6.23%, while the prime lending rate remained at 3.25%.

Bank and trust company registration continued on its downward trajectory, this time by 4.5%, while insurance licenses went up by 2.5%.

Mutual funds grew by 2.5% this period, propped up by master funds registration; excluding this category, mutual funds registration fell by 2.6%.

Stock exchange listings fell by 12.1% to settle at 1,034.

New company registrations rebounded by 20.7% to total 2,718 following two years of decline.

Air arrivals grew by 5.2% and cruise passengers by 2.0%.

The value of building permits rose by 57.9% while project approvals fell by 56.8%.

The increase in building permits is due to the Kimpton Hotel development.

The value of property transfers increased by 2.7% to $110.8 million.

Water consumption fell by 4.6% while electricity consumption rose by 4.2.

The central government’s overall fiscal surplus improved to $149.4 million from $131.8 million a year ago.

The total outstanding debt of the central government continue to contract, this time by $24.3 million to settle at $558.3 million.

You can download the whole report by going to: http://www.eso.ky/UserFiles/page_docums/files/uploads/the_cayman_islands_first_quarter_economi.pdf