Saint Kitts and Nevis
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Sugar was the traditional mainstay of the Saint Kitts economy until the 1970s. Following the 2005 harvest, the government closed the sugar industry after decades of losses of 3-4% of GDP annually. To compensate for employment losses, the government has embarked on a program to diversify the agricultural sector and to stimulate other sectors of the economy. Activities such as tourism, export-oriented manufacturing, and offshore banking have assumed larger roles in the economy and have contributed to the recent robust growth. Tourism revenues are now the chief source of the islands' foreign exchange; about 341,800 tourists visited Nevis in 2005. The current government is constrained by a high debt burden, public debt reached 190% of GDP by the end of 2005, largely attributable to public enterprise losses. Source: The Places Factbook, CIA. |
First
settled by the British in 1623, the islands became an associated state with full
internal autonomy in 1967. The island of Anguilla rebelled and was allowed to
secede in 1971. Saint Kitts and Nevis achieved independence in 1983. In 1998, a
vote in Nevis on a referendum to separate from Saint Kitts fell short of the
two-thirds majority needed. Nevis continues in its efforts to try and separate
from Saint Kitts.