It was the first time that the bureau reported on the territories’ GDP which measures their overall economic input. The methodologies used were consistent with those utilized to estimate U.S. GDP.
“The estimates show that real GDP — adjusted to remove price changes — grew over this period in each of the territories except the CNMI. From 2002 to 2007, American Samoa’s GDP grew at an average annual rate of 0.4 percent, Guam’s grew at…1.8 percent, and the USVI’s grew at…2.9 percent; in contrast, the CNMI’s GDP decreased at an average annual rate of 4.2 percent,” the report stated.
Juan N. Babauta was the CNMI governor from Jan. 2002 to Jan. 2006. He was succeeded by Benigno R. Fitial, who won a second term last November.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Areas provided the bureau with $1.6 million to assist the territories in producing their GDP data.
In a statement, CNMI Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan said the report “unfortunately…only confirms what people in the Northern Mariana Islands already know: our economy has been in serious recession.”
He noted that the data “show us that the drop in GDP became less severe in 2006 and 2007. It will be very interesting to see if that trend continued into 2008 and 2009 and whether the tens of millions of dollars of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds provided by Congress to the Northern Marianas have contributed to any improvement in our economy.”
The decline in the CNMI’s GDP was mainly attributed to the demise of the Saipan garment manufacturing industry and the decline in the arrivals rate after Japan Airlines abandoned the route in late 2005.
In 2002, the CNMI posted a GDP of $1.32 billion. By 2007, this was down to $962 million.
It’s real GDP per capita was pegged at $16,494 as of 2007.
Population growth
Except for the CNMI, all of the territories posted positive growth in their population as their economies grew from 2002 to 2007.
The CNMI’s population declined during the period with close to 16,000 people leaving the islands.
From 74,372 in 2002, the population shrunk to 58,629 in 2007.
“As a consequence real GDP per capita increased at an annual average rate of 0.5 percent,” the report stated.
Guest worker population reached some 40,000 in the 1990s when the garment manufacturing and the tourism industries were at their peak.
As of last year, Interior said there were only 16,304 guest workers left on the islands.
According to Sablan, “Good policy depends on good data. Without accurate numbers on the economy, on employment, on income levels, policymakers have to guess what to do and when. And it is very difficult for government officials or the public to know if policies are effective, because there is no objective measure before and after.” For more information, go to the Web site at http://bea.gov/newsreleases/general/2010/territory_0310.htm.
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