Agriculture’s contribution to GDP falls 16% in 4 years

The contribution of the agricultural sector to the economy of St. Vincent and the Grenadines fell by 16% between 2021 and 2024, moving from EC$125 million to EC$105 million.

“But it’s important to note that in that intervening period, the loss and damage from the volcano to the agriculture sector was $173 million and the loss and damage in agriculture to Beryl was 181 million,” Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves told Parliament.

“So that doesn’t include Hurricane Elsa; that doesn’t include the drought. But in those two disasters alone — two of four disasters — you see loss and damage in excess of $350 million.”

The finance minister disclosed the data as he responded to a question from East Kingstown MP, Fitz Bramble.

Bramble, an opposition MP, had noted that Gonsalves said in the 2025 Budget Address in January that the Vincentian economy grew from a GDP of EC$2.4 billion to EC$3.1 billion between 2021 and 2024.

The finance minister had further noted that the growth was 25% at market prices over three years, marking the first time that SVG had an economy worth over EC$3 billion.

During the meeting of Parliament, Bramble asked Gonsalves to indicate the GDP growth rate for each year in the period mentioned and to provide a sectoral breakdown (by percentage and in dollars) of GDP for each of the three years cited.

Gonsalves said that in 2021, the GDP was EC$2.4 billion and EC$2.7 billion in 2022. In 2023, the GDP was 2.8 billion and in 2024 it was EC$3.05 million.

He noted that the growth rate for each of the years from 2021 to 2023 was 0.8%, 13.1% and 7.5%.

The 2024 growth rate is yet to be finalised but is projected at 6.9%, the finance minister said.

He noted that 2021 initially had been projected to be a year of negative growth because of the lingering impacts of the COVID pandemic and the eruption of La Soufriere volcano.

“But we managed positive growth, albeit marginal, that year of 0.8%.”

 Regarding the growth rate for each sector, the finance minister said there are 20 sectors of the economy and providing that data would be 160 data points.

He offered to provide Bramble a written answer even as he gave a summary to the national assembly.

The finance minister said there was growth in most sectors, though that growth was varied.

“… there has been a decline in the agriculture sector, because, as we know, we’ve had the volcano, Hurricane Beryl, Hurricane Elsa and the drought,” Gonsalves said.

He said that between 2021 and 2024, the manufacturing sector grew by 33%, going from EC$90.5 million to EC$120 million.

The construction sector grew by 51% — from EC$153 million to EC$231 million.

The wholesale and retail trade sector went up by 43% from EC$250 million to EC$359 million.

Transportation and storage went up 128% between 2021 and 2024, going from EC$147.5 million to EC$339 million and accommodation and food service activities went up 130%, going from EC$54.5 million to EC$127.1 million.

Gonsalves told Parliament that transportation and storage, the main component of which is transportation and accommodation and food services, were buoyed significantly by the improvements in tourism.

“The significant part of the transportation is air travel, and a significant part of accommodation and food service is, as the name implies,” he said.

There was an increase in financial and insurance activities of 20%; an increase in administrative and support services of 45%, driven largely by the construction and hospitality sectors, and to a lesser extent, wholesale and retail trade as trade rebounded post-COVID.

Gonsalves said he did not want to turn his response to the question into a discourse on his dissatisfaction with some of the ways that GDP numbers are measured.

He, however, illustrated his point by noting that there was growth in almost every sector, even as some sectors remained effectively flat.

“They go up a million dollars, $2 million over the time period. But some of them are related to the way in which we measure numbers.”

He said that, for example, the information and communication sector, showed a slight decline from EC$59 million to EC$57.3 million.

However, this is because GDP data does not take data usage into account.

“… they’re still measuring two factors: how many fixed-line telephones we have and how many cell phones we have,” Gonsalves said, adding that this was from an era of voice communication.

“… we all know how much we’re doing on YouTube and how many WhatsApp calls we’re making, how many WhatsApp messages we’re sending in, how much money we’re spending on Instagram and TikTok and all the rest of it.

“And that expenditure and that economic activity related to data is not captured in this number; can be captured elsewhere, but it’s not captured in this number.”

He further said that some agricultural data was still measured on exports of bananas at the port.

“Now, obviously, the makeup of our agriculture, our agricultural sector, has evolved…”

The finance minister, however, said that the numbers are maintained across the currency union, “so we can’t change them arbitrarily on our own.

“But we’re working with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to try to ensure that some of the metrics and some of the indicators that we use to measure GDP growth in particular sectors more properly reflect the modern times and the changing times that we have.”