The total revenue collections for the first and second quarters of 2010 amounted to $878.46 million, based on the latest reports released by acting Department of Commerce Secretary Sixto K. Igisomar.
Along with the increase in business gross revenue collections, the CNMI’s general fund revenue also showed a 17.2 percent increase in the second quarter, totaling $39.07 million. Last year’s second quarter collections reached $33.34 million.
The general fund revenues came from various sources such as business gross receipts, wages and salaries, corporate incomes, excise taxes, taxes from hotel occupancy, fuel/container/bar, fees, charges and other revenues, transfer from other funds and revenue transfer to other funds.
Government expenditures dipped by 1.2 percent for this year, totaling $37.8 million compared to last year’s $38.27 for the same period.
Banking deposits, including checking, savings and time deposits, totaled $454.66 million for the second quarter of this year while total loans amounted to $125.01 million. Last year’s total deposits for the same period totaled $467.74 million. Loans last year for the same period reached $134.26 million. These covered consumer, real estate, and commercial loans.
A very slight movement is seen in the remittance reports for the second quarter of this year: $16.1 million compared to $16.2 million for the same quarter last year. Remittances from January to March reached $16.3 million.
Remittances for the first six months of 2010 totaled $32.4 million. Remittances reached $112.6 million in 2005 and $102.2 million in the following year. The figures continued to decline since then: $93.6 million in 2007, $83.9 million in 2008 and $64.7 million in 2009.
Imports in the second quarter totaled $89,240, a very slight increase compared to the $89,210 during the same period last year.
Petroleum, oil and lubricants remain the island’s leading imports followed by food items, cement, garment, construction materials, beverages and other items.
The tourism industry showed increased arrivals: 81,642 in the second quarter as compared to the 73,764 visitors during the same period last year.
Reports from the Marianas Visitors Authority submitted to Commerce showed a total of 191,428 visitors from January to June this year. Japanese visitors made up over 50 percent of the arrivals: 94,322 during the first six months of the year. The other visitors came from Korea, the U.S., Guam, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan and other areas.
Based on second quarter reports from the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, the CNMI’s hotel occupancy rate was 53 percent at a daily rate of $89.26, a drastic drop from the 91.4 percent occupancy rate at a daily rate of $91.40 for the same quarter last year.
The Department of Commerce released the first quarter economic indicators last August. Statistics Division Director Ivan Alafanso Blanco earlier told the Variety that the delay in releasing the economic indicator reports was due to in-house editing and formatting and the government’s work-hour cuts.
