GDP Decline Of 15.7% For 2020 2nd Quarter
The Minister for the Cabinet Office Wayne Furbert released the Quarter 2, 2020 Quarterly Gross Domestic Product [GDP] by Expenditure publication from the Department of Statistics.
The Minister explained, “After adjusting for inflation, the GDP in constant prices for the second quarter decreased by 15.7 per cent to $1,368.0 million. The decline in growth was influenced primarily by double-digit declines in final consumption and gross capital formation due to restricted economic activity caused by mitigation efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
“Final consumption fell by 15.1 per cent as both household and government consumption decreased year-over-year. Household Final Consumption decreased 18.0 per cent year-over-year to $671.3 million with expenditure on durable goods and services experiencing the largest declines.
“For durable goods, spending fell 33.4 per cent with fewer purchases of motor vehicles, furniture and major household appliances. Spending on services contracted 14.7 percent with the largest declines recorded for travel-dependent services such as accommodation and air transport.
“Catering services and personal care services also decreased significantly. Consumption of non-durable goods fell 6.5 per cent despite large increases in expenditure on food and beverages. For government consumption, lower payments for employee overheads and other personnel costs led to a 4.0 per cent decrease.”
Charts extracted from the report
The Minister further explained, “Gross Capital Formation [i.e. investment in fixed assets] fell 55.6 per cent to $152.3 million. Gross Capital Formation related to Construction registered a 40.5 per cent decrease while investment in Machinery and Equipment fell 66.8 per cent, both reflecting restricted economic activity during the second quarter.
“In contrast to the other components of the quarterly GDP estimates, the net surplus on trade in goods and services increased 37.0 per cent to $341.0 million. This growth reflected mostly lower expenditure on the Imports of Goods and Services. Payments for the Imports of Goods fell sharply by 48.0 per cent due to decreases in imported fuel, machinery and equipment while Imports of Services decreased 39.9 per cent as payments for freight transport fell and residents spent less on travel services. Exports of Services were 19.0 per cent lower as receipts from travel services dipped significantly due to travel restrictions. Exports of Goods also fell 41.3 per cent due primarily to less fuel sold to visiting airlines.”
“The public is advised to read the concepts and definitions on the last page of the publication prior to reviewing the data.
The full Quarterly GDP Publication Q2 2020 follows below [PDF here]:
The economy was f*cakes before COVID. All the pandemic did was speed up the inevitable. The simple mathematics have been discussed as infinitum for years by Burchall and co.
20 years of failure and decline. The PLP status quo.
Interesting how you left out Burchall and co.
The co stands for Brian Duperreault. The same developer involved in Morgans Point never built hotel. That you idiots in the obaUBP…. YOUR party signed the tax payers up on a $185 million guarantee.
40 years of racial discrimination as UBP. 1 day to change the name to oba because black voters left you past. 4 years in power as obaUBP. Now 6 seats and your own supporters left you. That is your status quo!
This has nothing to do with the OBA, or if you must the UBP before them. For the record, I am a member of no political party.
The point is, you’re eyes may be wide open but you’re seeing nothing. The simple fact is, that the math told us what was going to happen. It’s that simple.
20 years of inaction, incompetence, corruption and failure.
Here we go again , the usual completely unsubstantial claim of 40 years of discrimination blah , blah. Just because you all keep saying it doesn’t prove it.
What I saw was growth in YOUR segment that was unparalleled in previous time. Businesses opening , home purchase , children going overseas for further education in large numbers , leisure travel all over the world and the list goes on.
If it was so racist and discriminatory how were all these things possible ?
Keep perpetuating your myths and division , it’s all you have to keep the PLP in because sure as hell they don’t have anything else except the 2 Bermuda’s joke.
According to the OBA the UBP was a racist party thus the very reason the OBA tries to distance the party from it altogether. If the UBP was as you say and things were going so good, why did the people in the party flush it down the toilet and create another.
*why did the people in the party flush it down the toilet and create another.*
What other way is there to overcome racist labels in local politics ?
According to the Bermuda electorate, better the financial failure of the PLP than the systemic societal failure of the UBP.
“The Minister explained, “After adjusting for inflation, the GDP in constant prices for the second quarter decreased by 15.7 per cent to $1,368.0 million. The decline in growth was influenced primarily by double-digit declines in final consumption and gross capital formation due to restricted economic activity caused by mitigation efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”
That would require the Minister to understand what that “explanation” means. Were there any follow up questions>