The Jamaican economy grew by 1.6 percent in the first quarter of this year over the similar 2013 period but it is lower than the growth in the December quarter and only just moves the country ahead of where it was in 2012 as the latest growth figure places the country at 0.50 percent ahead of the first quarter of 2012. This is the third straight quarter that the economy is said to have grown. Statin previously confirmed that the Jamaican economy grew 1.8 percent in last year’s fourth quarter, 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2013 when compared to the similar quarter of 2012 versus a decline of 0.1 per cent in the second quarter and declined by 1.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2013.
In contributing the overall growth in 2014, Goods producing industries grew by 5.5 percent and Services industries by 0.3 percent. Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing grew by 17.7 percent, Mining & Quarrying 8.5 percent and Construction 1.2 percent. Manufacture declined by 1.2 percent.
“Higher output levels in Construction was impacted largely by continued expansion in hotels and increased spending on work under the Jamaica Development Infrastructure programme”, Statin stated.
“Higher output was recorded for all industries within the Service sector with the exception of the Government Services which declined by 0.2 percent. Higher output was recorded for Transport, Storage & Communication (0.7 percent), Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities (0.6 percent), Electricity & Water Supply (0.5 percent), Other Services (0.4 percent), Hotels & Restaurants and Finance & Insurance Services (0.2 percent) and Wholesale & Retail Trade; Repairs; Installation of Machinery & Equipment grew by (0.1 percent)”, the report stated.