Tourism, petroleum transshipment, and offshore finance were the mainstays of the Netherlands Antillean economy, which was closely tied to the outside world. The islands enjoyed a high per capita income and a well-developed infrastructure as compared with other countries in the region at the time of the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. Almost all consumer and capital goods were imported, with Venezuela, the US, and Mexico being the major suppliers. Poor soils and inadequate water supplies hampered the development of agriculture.
Gross Domestic product- $3.81 billion GDP: purchasing power parity - $3 600 million (3,6 G$) (2007 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 4,0% (2007 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $19 000 (2007 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 1%
industry: 15%
services: 84% (2007 est.)
Population below poverty line: NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: ± 1,5%
highest 10%: ± 31%
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 3,0% (2007)
Labour force: 83 600 (2005)
Labour force - by occupation: agriculture 1%, industry 20%, services 79% (2007 est.)
Unemployment rate: 9% (2007 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $757,9 million
expenditures: $949,5 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (2004 est.)
Industries: tourism (Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Bonaire), petroleum refining (Curaçao), petroleum transhipment facilities (Curaçao and Bonaire), light manufacturing (Curaçao)
Industrial production growth rate: NA%
Electricity - production: 1 005 GWh (2004)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 100%
hydro: 0%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)
Electricity - consumption: 934,7 GWh (2004)
Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2004)
Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2004)
Agriculture - products: aloes, sorghum, peanuts, vegetables, tropical fruit
Exports: $2 076 million (f.o.b., 2004)
Exports - commodities: petroleum products
Exports - partners: US 32%, Panama 10.1%, Guatemala 7,9%, Haiti 6,4%, The Bahamas 5,1% (2005)
Imports: $4 383 billion (c.i.f., 2004)
Imports - commodities: crude petroleum, food, manufactures
Imports - partners: Venezuela 50%, US 22,2%, Italy 5.2%, Netherlands 5% (2005)
Debt - external: $2 680 million (2004)
Economic aid - recipient: IMF provided $61 million in 2000, and the Netherlands continued its support with $40 million (2004)
Currency: 1 Netherlands Antillean guilder, gulden, or florin (NAf.) = 100 cents
Exchange rates: Netherlands Antillean guilders, gulden, or florins (NAf.) per US$1 – 1.790 (fixed rate since 1989)
Fiscal year: calendar year
Famous quotes containing the words economy of, economy, netherlands and/or antilles:
“Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant’s economy is a coarse symbol of the soul’s economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kow-tow before any United States pro-consul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.”
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“When a bachelor of philosophy from the Antilles refuses to apply for certification as a teacher on the grounds of his color I say that philosophy has never saved anyone. When someone else strives and strains to prove to me that black men are as intelligent as white men I say that intelligence has never saved anyone: and that is true, for, if philosophy and intelligence are invoked to proclaim the equality of men, they have also been employed to justify the extermination of men.”
—Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)