Drinks Sector Losing Its Fizz?

The slowdown in economic growth that we had been anticipating appears underway, with the deceleration most notable in retail sales and construction activity. Tighter liquidity conditions have been largely to blame, with credit expansion slowing to just 1.0% in Q208 from 4.0% a year earlier. Meanwhile, the tourism sector suffered declining numbers in Q208, with visitor arrivals down 7.2% y-o-y to 1.1mn. We see little preventing a further deceleration in the Bahamian economy going forward, as worsening global growth continues to weight on local activity. We are forecasting real GDP growth of 2.5% and 2.4% in 2008 and 2009 (down

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