Bahamas GDP Rebounds 4-8 Months After Storms

• The Bahamas has returned to pre-hurricane gross domestic product (GDP) levels between four to eight months after each of the last four major storms struck this nation, a study has found. 
• An Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report, produced by four authors on the impacts of Dorian, Irma, Matthew and Joaquin, found that this country’s economy rebounded relatively quickly despite the combined $4.4bn worth of damage they inflicted. 
• This, though, is likely explained by the fact that New Providence, which generates roughly 70-75 percent of the country’s economic output (GDP), was not directly impacted by any of these storms apart from Hurricane Matthew which failed to score a direct hit in October 2016. 
• In measuring the storms’ impact the IDB report has stated that it takes between four and eight months on average for the economy to recover to pre-hurricane GDP levels for the hurricanes studied.”
• “The results show that The Bahamas experiences a decrease in the year-to-year nominal growth rate during the month and quarter of a hurricane impact event, but does not show a contraction of GDP in the year of the event. However, this does not mean that the damages are insignificant.”

(Source: IDB & The Tribune)