Natural Disasters and Economic Diversity

Introduction

Economic diversity is where an economy shifts away from a single income source in place of multiple sources from a variety of markets and sectors. Most Caribbean island’s economy are not diverse and are either singularly based on oil, tourism or exports of goods. This can have major repercussions for these countries when their reserves are depleted or a natural disaster occurs.
Trinidad and Tobago has a per-capita income of US$17,002, which is one of the highest average incomes among the Caribbean countries.

Its economy is largely based on oil and natural gas production, where the petroleum industry accounts for more than 40 percent of its GDP between 2006 and 2014, however, its GDP has dropped to about 22 percent in 2015 and 2016 after a drop in international oil prices. The economy is now expected to recover between 2019 and 2021.
Belize has a per-capita income of US$4,971 and its economy has seen significant transformation since the 1990s, mainly due to its growth in the tourism industry and the discovery of oil in 2005.

The country economy high depends on exports and imports, and exposure to natural disasters affects this. Belize’s economy was expected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2019.
Guyana has a per-capita income of US$5,194 and is well endowed with natural resources, fertile agricultural lands, bauxite, gold, and extensive tropical forests that cover more than 80 percent of the country. Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining accounts for about one third of its GDP and Gold mining accounts for 48 percent of exports during 2016. The country’s exports can be affected by bad weather and climate change.

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Trinidad and Tobago, Belize and Guyana are three examples which the majority of its income come from one source.

References

1. A publication of the Ministry of Finance. “REVIEW OF THE ECONOMY 2019.” https://www.finance.gov.tt/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/REVIEW-OF-THE ECONOMY-2019.pdf.
2. Schmid, Juan Pedro. “The Caribbean Economic Outlook in Three Graphs.” https://blogs.iadb.org/caribbean-dev-trends/en/the-caribbean-economic-outlook-in three-graphs/.
3. De La Paz, Alejandra. “The World Bank in the Caribbean.” https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/caribbean/overview#1.
4. Dwarka, Ramdath. “The diversification challenge for small Caribbean economies.” http://www.adekusjournal.sr/adekusjournal/data/documentbestand/Diversification_o Caribbean_economies.pdf.
5. Berezin, Peter., Ali Salehizadeh, and Elcior Santana. “The Challenge of Diversification in the Caribbean.” http://ctrc.sice.oas.org/geograph/caribbean/berezin.pdf.
6. Khadan, Jeetendra. “Why we need Economic Diversification in Trinidad and Tobago.” https://blogs.iadb.org/caribbean-dev-trends/en/why-we-need-economic diversification-in-trinidad-and-tobago/.