Last Wednesday, the IEDOM (Overseas Departments' Issue Institute) unveiled the 2018 annual report on the economic activity of Saint Martin. According to the report, the year 2018 remains marked by the passage of cyclone Irma and the economy, based on a strong specialization in tourism was strongly impacted, fell considerably in 2018.
The pace of reconstruction of the infrastructure, heavily affected by the cyclone, "does not allow us to envisage a rapid return to normal", according to Gilles Genre-Grandpierre, director of the IEDOM of Guadeloupe, who came to present the report with the company. by David Lauret, Director of Studies and Credit Institutions. To illustrate his remarks, the director of the IEDOM specifies that the hotel capacity available at the end of 2018 "represents only half of that which was available before Irma". According to the report drawn up by the State in September 2018, significant damage, the limited financial resources of owners, barely 40% of whom were insured, as well as the delay in insurance compensation slowed down the ability of the population and businesses to initiate work. However, the reconstruction has boosted the construction sector, even causing tensions on the workforce, the prices of imported raw materials, as well as those of rents, given the influx of a large workforce who came to participate in the works.
“In this context, banking activity was buoyant, both in terms of lending activity and deposit collection. The latter were directly impacted by the intensification of the payment of insurance indemnities in 2018 ”, assures Gilles Genre-Grandpierre. Also, in 2018 in Saint-Martin, the banks supported the reconstruction and therefore their activity was up sharply, both in terms of credits, + 26,0%, and in deposits, + 40,8 %. These are largely impacted by the intensification of the payment of insurance indemnities in 2018. _RM
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