Bonaire’s economy grew by 8.8% and Saba’s by 1.5% in 2022, while St. Eustatius saw an eleven percent de­cline, driven by losses in major companies tied to the international oil mar­ket. These figures were re­ported by the Dutch Cen­tral Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Thursday.

Bonaire’s growth was driv­en by the accommodation, recreation, and food servic­es sectors, while St. Eusta­tius’ decline was mainly due to the shrinking turnover of a limited number of large businesses.

The biggest contributor to Saba’s modest growth was down to the government opening up 7% more jobs in the civil service, CBS said.

Saba

The number of tourists arriving in Saba increased to approximately 4,900 in 2022, up from 4,000 record­ed the year before. Howev­er, this is still considerably lower than in 2019, when about 8,800 tourists visited the island.

“Although more tourists visited the island, the value added to the sector de­clined, as well as in the edu­cation sector, because there were fewer [medical — Ed.] students,” CBS said.

Public administration made the largest contribu­tion to Saba’s economic growth in 2022, with 7% more jobs being added to the sector.

Bonaire

Bonaire lifted its corona-virus restrictions at the be­ginning of 2022, which saw tourist arrivals by air ex­ceeding pre-pandemic fig­ures, increasing to 173,000 that year compared to 111,000 arrivals in 2021 and 158,000 in 2019.

“This led to an increase in the value added of both the accommodation and food services and recreation sec­tors by over 45%,” CBS said.

Supermarkets performed particularly well in 2022, CBS said, with the island’s population increasing by 5.3% that year.

The real estate indus­try also recorded 17.5% growth, “as many building lots were sold”, CBS said.

Public administration in­creased by 17.1%, with the number of jobs in this sec­tor reaching 1,490 in 2022, compared to 1,270 in 2021.

Despite the overall eco­nomic growth in 2022, the construction industry re­corded a decline of 6.9% and the number of jobs fell by 4%. This is in stark contrast to recent trends, as the construction indus­try in Bonaire has grown by more than 50% since 2017.

There was also a 6.5% de­cline in the transportation, information and commu­nications industries, while financial services fell by 9.6%.

St. Eustatius

St. Eustatius’ economic decline in 2022 was at­tributed to “a few large businesses on the island”, which are “mainly export-oriented and dependent on oil demand in the region,” according to CBS.

“Demand for these busi­nesses’ products and servic­es fell in 2022,” CBS said. “Although these businesses substantially impact St. Eustatius’ [gross do­mestic product] GDP, their impact on national income is limited. The profits of these businesses are not included in the national income because they are wholly foreign-owned en­terprises.”

Compared to 2017, CBS said St. Eustatius’ GDP fell by 35% in 2022, or from US $142 million to $92 million.

“This was due to several factors. In 2017, Hur­ricane Irma caused major damage on the island. In 2019, several large businesses were greatly hampered by regional de­velopments in the oil sec­tor, which reduced demand for oil storage. On top of that, the COVID-19 pan­demic struck in 2020, re­ducing the demand for oil storage even further and decreasing the number of tourists,” CBS said.

St. Eustatius’ economy had not returned to pre-pan­demic levels in 2021, only recording slight growth in hard-hit sectors, such as accommodation, food ser­vices and transportation. “And in 2022, the economy shrank due to a further de­cline in foreign demand for the products and services of some of the island’s large businesses,” CBS said. `Al­though the number of tour­ists increased by more than 50% to 5,600, the additional demand created by this in the accommodation and food services sectors, in par­ticular, was insufficient to compensate for the contrac­tion of large businesses.”

The Daily Herald.