The Cayman Island’s official government stat-trackers have reported that Caymanians and the island’s expatriate residents consumed +/- CI$1,697 million dollars worth of goods and services in 2015.
This figure was the conclusion of the 2015 Household Budget Survey. This figure is up more than 36% than the same spending report when the survey was lasttaken8 years ago. The report also estimated that consumption was CI$28,411 per capita in 2015 and varied widely depending on where the individual stood on the socioeconomic strata.
The statisticians stated that the ranking of the Cayman Island’s populous’ spending per person showed that the lowest-earning 20% had an average annual spending rate of $9,564 while the highest-earning sector’s spending was around 8 x that at an estimated average outflow of CI$73,637. Individual spending numbers also varied widely between individuals living on Grand Cayman and those persons living on the sister islands ofLittle Cayman and Cayman Brac. People on these islands spent roughlyCI$8,000 less per annum than thepeople on Grand Cayman.The whole consumption rate for last year was 36.5% higher than the CI$1,243 million dollars the populace spent in 2007. We, of course, all remember that this was the year before the global markets crashed.
Mr. Marco Archer, the Minister for Finance and Economic Development,reported that the increase is due, at least in part, to the island’s population growth between 2007 and 2015. The highest increase in spending was on alcohol and tobacco followed by spending in hotel stays and in restaurants. Spending on vehicles/transport followed next, then, at an increase of roughlyten percent. Mr. Archer commented that these figures showa key lifestyle change among Cayman’s resident population.Also noteworthy here is the fact that the prices of alcohol and tobacco have gone up considerably since the last survey was taken.
The government has also been able to report thatspending associated with basic needs remainedsteady and that spending on health, housing, utilities, non-alcoholic beverages and foodstuffs were all growing less than 1% en total. The slowing growth for the housing sector was due to the decline in spending on home maintenance and repairs. Consumer spending on chattels, household tools and home maintenance also declined year by year by a 1.7% margin whencompared to the last survey year. Moreover, housing and utilities remained the largest consumption division and the purchase of vehicles/transport is now the second largest household expenditure. This spending takes the spot of spending onassorted goods and services since 2007. Lastly, this Household Budget Survey elicited a response rate of 83% among roughly 1200 sample households spread over the three islands that make up the Cayman Islands.