Economics look promising for CIG

| 17/09/2015 | 57 Comments

Cayman News Service(CNS): Officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development have revealed statistics that bode well for government finances and the domestic economy. Growth in the local economy was estimated to be 1.4% in the first quarter of this financial year and inflation fell by more than 3.5% as a result of a drop in fuel prices. The government number crunchers said that government’s surplus is at $151.9 million and its debt has fallen by 5%.

The statistics are revealed in a number of reports released by the Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) that show the performance indicators for the first quarter of this financial year. Although the growth in GDP is slightly lower than the pace of growth recorded at the same time last year, Finance and Economics Minister Marco Archer said the country was on track to meet predictions for this year of over 2% with the 1.4% growth rate.

“This is slightly lower than the 1.5% recorded a year ago. Nonetheless this is a solid pace, considering that the US had a GDP decline in the same period,” he said. “Overall, the recent performance means that we are on track in achieving the 2.1% forecast GDP growth for the year.”

A number of sectors contributed to the growth, led by hotels and restaurants and real estate and business. Financial services, which remain the largest sector, had a marginal growth of 0.4%, an improvement over the estimated decline of 0.2% in 2014.

With the economy remaining steady, the minister said he was pleased by government’s own fiscal performance. “The fiscal surplus at $151.9 million is 1.7% higher than a year earlier, while the central government’s outstanding debt, amounting to $530.2 million, is 5% lower from the same period a year ago,” he added.

The Consumer Price Index fell in the year’s second quarter, this time by 3.6%, following a fall in the first quarter by 0.4%. “Similar to the first quarter, the second quarter decline is traced primarily to the reduction in fuel prices this year compared to a year ago,” Archer noted.

While many people have felt little relief, according to the statistics the price index for electricity, gas and other fuels fell sharply by 25.7% during this quarter compared to the same quarter in 2014. The index for water supply and miscellaneous services also moved downward by 10.3% and, along with a drop in fuel price, transport costs fell by 7.6%.

The Cayman Islands’ Consumer Price Index Report June 2015

The Cayman Islands’ First Quarter Economic Report 2015

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Category: Economy, Politics

Comments (57)

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  1. K.O. Matsu says:

    Further to the Agricultural Minister’s call for farming hero nominations, may I hereby submit erstwhile FCO Minister Bellingham who oversaw the implementation of the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility thereby preventing our elected spenders from digging us into a deep hole that we could never get out of.

    • Kenny says:

      That you civil service and elected officials. There is hope again. No more wasting of government funds. Now let’s take care of the civil servants who have not had a raise on 7 years.

      • Fred the Piemaker says:

        We have to save money to build the cruise piers instead, since for some reason neither the merchants nor the cruise lines want to pay for them themselves.

  2. SOS says:

    Say what you will about the intentions of the British overlords, but the FFR is what has led to the current reported surpluses.

    Without the FFR our politicos would spend us down the river faster than a slot machine gobbles a bucket of quarters.

    • Woof Wooof says:

      Ladies and Gentlemen this discussion us incomplete as we do not yet have the economic pronounce ts of our next PPM Premier the Right Activist George Ebanks.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Good job guys. Ignore the envious UDP folks posting here. They know what’s happening and it’s killing them that they can’t get their hands on some of that surplus cash. It’s amazing to see how quickly we can recover once corruption is removed from the equation.

    • Anonymous says:

      Err, better yes, over, absolutely not. If they are that good then audited reports and accounts due tomorrow with no qualifications. Over 2 years in and whilst better, not anywhere near finished. Until then, don’t believe the figures.

    • Anonymous says:

      CNS please add a button for a donkey.Troll does not really capture the essence

    • Anonymous says:

      I posted and do not support the udp. Believe it or not but things said or done by government are sometimes just dumb. Lay off the drugs mate

    • Anonymous says:

      As a kid I used to watch the sprat birds circle high above the school of sprats and then fly straight down and dive in. Sometimes they caught a sprat, but quite often they would miss. When they missed, they would shake the water off, fly back into the air, and fly in circles above the school of sprats waiting to take another dive in. Until the wings have been clipped from the notorious West Bay sprat birds, as well as a few others from the other districts (think Cayman Brac), corruption has not been removed from the equation.

    • Anonymous says:

      Not just corruption removed but also plain simple self serving incompetents in positions where at least basic education would help.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Obviously Cayman Brac in no longer a part of the Cayman Islands.

  5. Rp says:

    If you want faster growth, reduce the enormous fees levied on the financial industry. This will make us more competitive in the marketplace and allow us to bring more business to Cayman. It will also attract new financial services businesses to open up.

    Right now to start an accounting practice for instance one needs to invest at least 100k to get off the ground. If we keep t&b fees, wp fees, company fees, licensing fees as high as they are, we will continue to weed out professional businesses as they can easily relocate to other jurisdictions. Couple that with no start ups and cig future will be in jeopardy.

    • R.I.P. says:

      You don’t understand. The financial industry, that provides most of our gargantuan $700,000,000 plus annual recurrent revenue (massively dwarfing that of any similarly sized island nation), is the golden goose and, as such, it must be squeezed and throttled until it can give no more.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Dear fellow citizens of the middle class and upper.poor class. I am following a financial plan which allows.me.to.achieve.independence. After.losing my.house to.divorce and all the struggling for.those mortgaged years I have cut back to Sardines for.lunch soup.for.dinner and doing everything I can myself. 2 years into.this.project I am becoming debt free. People may laugh at me and i can’t borrow money in the bank for a nice car but little do they know I am cash positive 15,000. Get a few scorning look from my former slave classmates who work for the bank not in the bank LOL. The value.of.one dollar not spent.in Cayman is really worth about 1.27 + freight and insurance so my 15000 is really worth like 25,000

    In cayman your taxed on what you spend so just dont spend and you will be fine

    • Donald Von Clownface says:

      Your (period) typing (period) style (period) reminds (period) me (period) of (period) Megyn (period) Kelly.

  7. Anonymous says:

    wish i could point to some miracle ppm policy but i can’t…..they have just continued the policies of the last administration…..

    • Anonymous says:

      The last administration had policies???

      • Anonymous says:

        Indeed they did. They are clearly set out in the auditor general’s report on the nation building fund. They can be summarized in three words: “wote fi me”.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yes! A copy of them can be found at FIFA.com

    • Woof Woof says:

      Come on PPM we ain’t in no sweet spot rather we are in a real mess with people unemployed,, people losing homes, burglaries every day, fuel prices playing see saw,mental illness on the rise, poverty levels going no where else but up; and you all have the nerve to say man shut Ina face.: I wish they would bring back the cat o nine to lace some stupid asses or should we say donkeys.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Is this like Cayman Airways,?
    Excluding Subsidy.

    • Anonymous says:

      CIG does not receive a subsidy. Who would we get it from? Broke UK? The so-called subsidy to Cayman Airways is really government paying Cayman Airways to the service routes it requires which may not be financially viable in themselves but are thought to be good for our tourism product.

    • Anonymous says:

      The first principle of Trumanomics: “When calculating surplus/profit, ignore all subsidies, grants, transfer payments and outstanding debts which might discolour the picture and make it look less favourable.”.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Pure bullshit.

  10. Anonymous says:

    The headline figures may look good but hide a multitude of sins that will come back to haunt us unless rectified, including regulation in the finance industry and CIG/official bodies attitudes towards its largest revenue earner, all the way through to education and the dump which really will slap Cayman in the face in the very near future (and already is) unless pro-actively resolved instead of ignored as poisonous questions.

  11. To tell you the truth says:

    These numbers are not worth the paper they are written on, one simply has to go back and look at the economic predictions made in the previous strategic policy statements (SPS) and budgets, and see that every time the Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) release a figure, it is radically different from what they said previously. Until we start having some consistency with their reporting on the economy, it will be a case of “my guess is as good as theirs”

    Oh and by the way, it would be illuminating if you could let the rest of us know where the ESO is buying their goods and services and noting this decline in cost of living. I coupon clip, watch my consumption and try to be as economical as possible, yet, I still don’t see anything near the drop in cost of living that is being reported here. I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but the only thing that seems to be going down is the value of the dollars I collect for my salary every month.

    • Anonymous says:

      You can ask, but they won’t tell you where they buy their hardough bread because that information is protected by the FOI law. Garbage in, garbage out.

  12. Anonymous says:

    On last report, the Cayman Islands has the highest cost of living in the world – ahead of Geneva, New York, and Monaco. I wonder who in Cayman can afford to live and work here? Perhaps if they can publish the demographics or stratified segment of society that this economy will profitably serve, maybe the “economics” will make sense!

    The Cayman Islands need qualitative and quantitative indicators of ‘truth’, not ‘lies’.

  13. Neil says:

    Everything is relative. Check the numbers for other small island nations. CI looking good and pushing ahead with infrastructure that’ll be amortized over many years.

    • Shadow Chancellor says:

      Cayman is anticipated to experience another infrastructure boom by the Progressives in the form of the Airport redevelopment costing 75 million. Additionally, GT cruise port is estimated to cost 300 million for the construction alone.

      Combine these costs with your existing long term debt conservatively estimated to be 1.8 billion these projects will cripple the Cayman Islands long term. It doesn’t matter how long the projects are amortized over as revenue is decreasing. The reality is that the primary source of CIG revenue (the financial services industry) is contracting so how will this and future government’s pay for these expensive political dreams and vanity projects?

      Projections are good but look around at the reality currently experienced by many caymanians and businesses. Unfortunately, this is what Cayman can look forward to as its new normal going forward as the economy continues to dip and your inability to service debit increases.

      • Anonymous says:

        I think if you were to compare us to Bermuda you wouldn’t be so negative about how Cayman was doing. They are running a budget deficit of $300mio a year, $2.5bn in debit, not counting the same pension black hole, about to spend $200mio on a new airport by giving up 30 years of revenue – the same deal we rejected in favour of a $55mio deal.

        • Garfield says:

          11:48, I will absolutely guarantee you that the new Grand Cayman airport will not / not be built for $55 million the way the project is currently structured. Furthermore, there has not been a new civilian airport built in North and South America in the last 10 years that has not had jetways. Cayman will be behind the times when the airport is finally built. The new Bermuda airport will have 8 jetways and will also have both the final price, time for completion and work guaranteed by the Government of Canada. But in the end the economic beauty of the project is that Bermuda has not had to take on new public debt while we in Cayman are well on the way to a billion dollars worth of public debt in 2 years time. By the way, the new Bermuda airport project is well underway and I bet they are on time and on budget.

  14. Revelations 3:45 says:

    “There are lies damn lies and then CIG statistics” – Anonymous

    • Anonymous says:

      You only believe the statistics when they are bad. If they were, you be saying “see, that proves what I have been saying all along!”. We don’t need mindless negativity. If you have some rational basis for doubting the numbers please put it forward. Otherwise, go have a nap.

      • SSM345 says:

        Take a look outside Around yourself you moron, its people like you that would believe unicorns are real if any of these MLA’s told you so.

        • Anonymous says:

          In other words you have no rational basis to doubt the numbers and you are frustrated about that so you call me names instead.

          • SSM345 says:

            9:05, you only need to look around at what’s going on in Cayman coupled with what needs to happen for us to stay afloat, think about big projects as well if that’s too difficult for you. Then tell me where we are going to get the money from since we cannot borrow anymore and revisit the figures the ESO published. If you still don’t get it, you shouldn’t be reading these stories to begin with.

      • Hill of Beans says:

        Um. Hello in there. The “numbers” haven’t passed an audit since the advent of party rule in the Cayman Islands.

        But hey, if you want to hang your hat on their integrity you go right ahead.

  15. Garfield says:

    Would appreciate if economists out there could explain how $530.2 million of public debt bodes well for an island economy of 58,000 people and with such a small GNP? Added to this amount next year will be over $180 million for a new port, $100 million plus for a new airport and over $200 million for a new dump / waste disposal facility. Geez, in 2 years we will be at nearly a billion in public debt. ????????????

    • Felix says:

      I’m with you, Garfield. These economists are juggling figures by omitting “unfriendly” figures and doing their best to make it look good! Could this be more “smoke” to make the multi-million dock project easier for the hoi polloi to swallow when it’s crammed down their throat?

  16. Knot S Smart says:

    I dont know why but I get this feeling that the past Minister of Finance forgot his calculator behind when he was ejected from office…
    And someone found it and continues to use it…

    • Anonymous says:

      Laugh if you may, but if the past minister hadnt done well cayman would be far behind. But he done so good you biased jokers,that cayman rating stayed good while the supposedly intellectuals in certain countries lost their “good” , rating.the surplus now comes from what the people pay which the ppm railed aginst but now embraces. Where is their ideas?
      And yours? you elitist biased jokers!!!!!

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