Today, the Minister for the Cabinet Office the Hon. Wayne Furbert, released the Quarter 1, 2019 Quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) publication from the Department of Statistics.

The Minister explained, “After adjusting for inflation, the GDP in constant prices for the first quarter increased 3.7 per cent.”  The Minister also explained, “The growth in the first quarter was driven mostly by an increase in capital formation related to new residential construction, civil works such as road and bridge refurbishments, as well as continued work on the power station construction, airport project and hotel development. Investment in machinery and equipment also increased during the period. The public is advised to read the concepts and definitions on the last page of the publication prior to reviewing the data.”

Highlighted below are the year-over-year changes in the quarterly GDP components:

• Household final consumption increased 0.5 per cent.
• Government final consumption increased 1.2 per cent.
• Gross capital formation increased 17.5 per cent.
• The external balance on trade in goods and services increased 3.8 per cent

The Quarter 1, 2019 Quarterly Gross Domestic Product publication is available online at https://www.gov.bm/quarterly-gross-domestic-product