The Jamaican economy continued to show signs of recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and grew by 6.7 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2021 when compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. That’s according to the latest report from the statistical institute of Jamaica, statin.
The out-turn was attributed to increases in both the services and the goods producing industries. The 6-point- 7 per cent growth for the October to December 2021 quarter is higher than the 6-per cent projected output, estimated by the Planning Institute of Jamaica PIOJ, last month.
The expansion was due to the relaxation of some covid-19 measures, including the easing of global travel restrictions and reduced curfews hours, with growth in all the services industries, except the producers of government services.
Financial Analyst Dennis Chung says the report is fair. Chung says the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine could prompt another increase in interest rates which will put a damper on consumer spending and expansion within the private sector. As for the first quarter of this year, Chung is of the view that growth will be slow due to the emergence of the omicron variant. He’s however expecting economic improvement for the remainder of the year improvement. Within the goods producing industry, there were higher outputs for ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’, up 13.8 per cent, and ‘construction’, which grew by 5.9 per cent. However, ‘manufacturing’, and ‘mining and quarrying’ contracted by 2.2 and 60.5 per cent, respectively.
