St. Vincent and the Grenadines - Economic sectors

The most recent available statistics (1996) show that agriculture accounted for 10.6 percent of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' gross domestic product (GDP). Farming, and banana cultivation in particular, is, however, an important source of employment and constitutes the country's main export, valued at $14.4 million in 1999. The most recent employment statistics, dating from 1991, show that approximately 22 percent of Vincentians worked in agriculture.

Industry accounted for 17.5 percent of GDP in 1996 and has grown considerably since the 1980s. Even so, it

is still a relatively small sector, comprising mainly food processing for local markets and some export-oriented manufacturing. In 1991, some 9 percent of the labor force was employed in manufacturing, with a further 11 percent working in construction.

Services accounted for 71.9 percent of GDP in 1996. Leaving aside government services, the largest contributor to this sector was tourism, which produced approximately $74 million in visitor expenditures in 1998. Other growing segments of the service sector were those related to offshore financial transactions and related informatics (information science) or electronic data processing. In 1991, before the financial sector grew, about 5 percent of the working population were employed in hotels and restaurants, while less than 2 percent were classified as involved in "financial intermediation."