he real drop in St. Maarten’s gross domestic product (GDP) of 8.4 per cent for 2017 reported by the Department of Statistics (see Tuesday paper) ought not be taken lightly. While such a development was to be expected due to the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Irma, in the end it meant the country having to do with 1.616 billion instead of 1.765 billion (not million as erroneously mentioned in the story) Antillean guilders, or about NAf. 150 million less.
This situation affected the public’s purchasing power and thus local businesses as well as government revenues. One must also keep in mind that things could have been much worse, as the decline occurred despite early emergency relief aid from primarily the Netherlands and millions in insurance payments.
The latter are, of course, still taking place this year but will eventually dwindle, which is one of the reasons it’s so important to finally get more programmes being financed from the Dutch government-sponsored Reconstruction Trust Fund managed by the World Bank on track. The same may obviously be said for the reopening of still-closed major visitor accommodations, but also for restoring the airport to where it can again adequately handle the number of passengers who used to come.
There are some encouraging signs in that respect, but any reasonable avenue to help the private sector speed up its recovery should be actively pursued at this time. It’s known that work was taking place on fiscal incentives for large rebuilding projects that will hopefully make a positive difference.
Make no mistake, the island’s dominant stayover tourism industry is by far the biggest component of the local economy and its return to relative normalcy remains key to having a much-needed at least halfway decent upcoming high season.
