Puerto Rico GDP Increased 0.3% in 2019, BEA Report Finds
Puerto Rico GDP Increased 0.3% in 2019, BEA Report Finds
(Bloomberg) -- Puerto Rico’s economy eked out a 0.3% gain in 2019 after declining the previous three years, battered by hurricanes and bankruptcy, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said Monday.
The report marks the first time the BEA has published “official” statistics on the gross domestic product of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
The uptick in 2019 was driven by pharmaceutical and organic chemical exports, which also helped displace imports, the BEA said. Even so, government spending decreased 11.4% in 2019 as the initial surge of recovery funds in response to Hurricane Maria began drying up. Consumer spending also decreased 0.5% in 2019.
The BEA also provided updated estimates for GDP running as far back as 2013:
| Year | Real GDP % Growth |
|---|---|
| 2013 | +2.5% |
| 2014 | +3.5% |
| 2015 | +1.1% |
| 2016 | -3.5% |
| 2017 | -4.7% |
| 2018 | -2.4% |
| 2019 | +0.3% |
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.3 million people, is emerging from a contentious bankruptcy and still reeling from Hurricane Maria in 2017 that destroyed its electrical grid and killed thousands. The quality of its statistics has long been a point of debate.
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