STATIN Reports 1.8% Growth in Second Quarter

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) is reporting that the Jamaican economy grew by 1.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2014, when compared to the similar quarter of 2013.

This growth also represented a 1.4 per cent improvement over the first quarter of 2014.

STATIN says the growth resulted from a 6.3 per cent improvement in output for the goods producing industries and a 0.5 per cent increase in the services industry.

Notable improvements were recorded in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry and STATIN says this was largely attributed to the sustained hurricane recovery and drought mitigation measures implemented by the Government.

The institute also noted that higher output levels were recorded in construction, mainly because of the increased expenditure on road work activities across the island, including the north-south leg of highway 2000.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller officially opened the Linstead to Moneague leg of the highway on August 5, which was developed by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), with financing from the China Development Bank and CHEC Americas.

Growth was also recorded in the Manufacturing sector, which benefited from a 111.9 per cent increase in the production of sugar and a 26.1 per cent growth in petroleum refining.

“Unlike the second quarter of 2013, when there was no production for the month of May, in 2014 production occurred for all the months of the review quarter,” STATIN highlighted.

In the meantime STATIN says the Mining & Quarrying industry declined by 0.4 per cent. This decline was due to a fall in alumina production, because of no work at one of the alumina refinery plants.

It explains that although there was a 13.3 per cent increase in the production of crude bauxite, this was not enough to offset the 4.3 per cent fall in alumina production.