2.6 Per Cent Growth For Goods Producing Industry

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) is reporting that higher outputs in construction, and mining and quarrying, largely spurred the goods producing industry’s 2.6 per cent growth for the January-March 2021 quarter.

Director-General of STATIN, Carol Coy, says construction grew by 10.5 per cent, and mining and quarrying, 7.1 per cent during the review period.

She was speaking during STATIN’s digital quarterly briefing on Thursday (July 15).

Ms. Coy said, conversely, the other two subsectors – agriculture, forestry and fishing, and manufacturing – declined by two per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively.

“The decline in agriculture was due, in part, to dry conditions in some of the major producing areas, coupled with the aftermath of damage sustained to agricultural lands [consequent on] heavy rainfall which occurred in the fourth quarter of 2020,” she said.

Meanwhile, all subsectors in the services industry except for the ‘producers of government services’, recorded declines.

Ms. Coy said the main contributors to the contraction were hotels and restaurants, down 55.9 per cent; transport, storage and communication, down 7.8 per cent; and wholesale and retail trade, repairs, installation of machinery and equipment, down 5.1 per cent.

The Director-General advised that the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and measures implemented locally and globally to curtail transmission during the review period, continued to negatively impact the economy.

She said this was evident in the 6.7 per cent decline in total value added over the quarter, relative to the corresponding period in 2020. This was primarily due to a 9.9 per cent decline in the services industry.

“This was also reflected in the seasonally adjusted value-added, which grew by 0.6 per cent when the performance of the economy in the first quarter of 2021 is compared to that of the fourth quarter of 2020,” Ms. Coy said.