Ivan costs Cayman Islands US$3.5 billion, says report

Friday, December 10, 2004

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: A United Nations-related team brought to Cayman at the end of November has reported that the total impact of the disaster on the Cayman Islands by Hurricane Ivan was CI$2.8 billion (US$3.5 billion). 

This is much greater than the total hurricane season damage this year to Grenada, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Bahamas combined. 

The report goes on to say that the total amount of damage and losses is equivalent to about 183% of Gross Domestic Product. 

The visiting team were members of ECLAC, The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. 

It is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations and was founded for the purposes of contributing to the economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean, coordinating actions directed towards this end, and reinforcing economic relationships among the countries and with the other nations of the world. 

The ECLAC-led mission arrived in Grand Cayman at the request of the Cayman Islands Government and the support of the United Nations Development Programme. The purpose of the visit was to prepare a multi-sector, integrated damage and losses report. The ECLAC methodology was developed over the past decades and is recognised by international public and private sector organisations. Their work identifies impacts in social, productive and infrastructure sectors. 

The team that came to Cayman also found that the amount of damage is estimated at $75,700 per person, the highest ever encountered by ECLAC. 

Over 80% of the impact reflects damage and destruction of assets, with housing the most significantly impacted. 

Damages and losses by sector are reported as follows: 

Social Sector: Total damage and losses to the social sector amounted to CI$1.5 billion, or 53% of the total impact. The most severely affected subsector being housing, which had a total impact of CI$1.4 billion. The impact on education totaled CI$44.8 million. 

Productive Sector: The total impact to the productive sector equaled to CI$931.4 million, or 33% of the total impact. The two most impacted subsectors being commerce and tourism. Commerce suffered an impact of CI$448.3 million and tourism experienced a total impact of CI$462.4 million. 

Infrastructure Sector: The total damage and losses to the infrastructure sector amounted to CI$407 million or 14% of the total impact. The most severely impacted subsector was road transport, which had a total impact of CI$194.9 million, followed by telecommunications at CI$79.5 million. 

Public Finances: Turning to the health of public finances, the current account balance of Central Government amounted to a positive CI$49.3 million pre-Ivan compared with a deficit of CI$42.9 million post-Ivan. This is a change of over CI$90.0 million in Government’s financial position. This does not factor in the additional capital investments that Government will need to make to bring the infrastructure back to pre-Ivan levels. 

Macro-economic Impacts: The ECLAC study also projected a drop in Cayman Islands’ GDP from the pre-storm level of 3.1% down to negative growth rate or contraction of -1.5% after the storm. The Consumer Price Index is expected increase from 1.9% to 2.5%.

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