St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been attracting significant foreign investment as a proportion of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The information was recently-published 2016 Report entitled Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
According to the data, FDI stands at 16 percent of GDP for the year 2015. The similar percentage measurements for 2015 for the other Caribbean countries are: Antigua-Barbuda 12 percent; St. Kitts-Nevis, 8 percent; Dominica, 7 percent; St. Lucia, 7 percent; Grenada, 6 percent; Barbados, 6 percent; Jamaica, 5.9 percent; Suriname, 5.7 percent; Trinidad and Tobago, 5.2 percent; Barbados, 4.2 percent; Bahamas, 4.1 percent; and Guyana, 4 percent.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Foreign Direct Investment in US dollars for the years 2005 to 2015 is as follows: 2005 to 2009, US $183 million; 2010, US $127 million; 2011, US $100 million; 2012, US $78 million; 2013, US $95 million; 2014, US $93 million; and 2015, US $95 million.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves outlined in his recent budget speech, he anticipates that FDI in 2017 will amount to approximately US $100 million, accounting for one-half of the estimated capital investments of US $200 million in private investment (local and foreign) and public investment (central government and state entities).
This is a significant capital investment, given the size of the total GDP of US $800 million or approximately EC $2 billion.
