Governor of the Central Bank, John Rolle released the latest Central Bank Report on the economy at a press event on Monday.

According to Rolle the economy expanded at a healthy but moderate pace in 2024 led by tourism and tourism related foreign investment.  He said, “employment gains continued to register and developments remain supportive of the government’s deficit reduction efforts.  The Bahamas benefited from additions moderation in inflation as average consumer price increases slowed at the international level and domestic energy sector adjustments caught up with the eternal savings from reduced oil prices.  In the monetary sector domestic credit growth strengthened significantly with lending conditions more improved and average loan delinquency rates further subsided.”

The Central Bank Governor also spoke on the slowing of economic activity.  “The economy’s growth rate is projected to have slowed to below the estimated 2.6% recorded in 2023.  There was further moderation in stop over tourism activity which although fully recovered from the pandemic faced a constrained supply of hotel rooms.  Based on available data when compared to the same period of 2023 air arrivals which are mostly stop over visitors were approximately unchanged over the first 11 months of 2024.”

Rolle assured that the Central Bank will pursue policies to safeguard the Bahamian dollar and financial stability.