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TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE REPORT

ST. LUCIA

Report on External Sector Statistics Mission (October 28–November 1, 2024)

JANUARY 2025

Prepared By

Felipe Estacio de Lima Correa

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MEMBERS

Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Sint Maarten, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands

PARTNERS

Canada, United Kingdom, European Union, Netherlands, Mexico, USAID, Caribbean Development Bank, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank

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DISCLAIMER

“The contents of this report constitute technical advice provided by the staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the authorities of St. Lucia (the “TA recipient”) in response to their request for technical assistance. This report (in whole or in part) or summaries thereof may be disclosed by the IMF to IMF Executive Directors and members of their staff, as well as to other agencies or instrumentalities of the TA recipient, and upon their request, to World Bank staff, and other technical assistance providers and donors with legitimate interest, including members of the Steering Committee of CARTAC, unless the TA recipient specifically objects to such disclosure (see Operational Guidelines for the Dissemination of Technical Assistance Information). Publication or Disclosure of this report (in whole or in part) or summaries thereof to parties outside the IMF other than agencies or instrumentalities of the TA recipient, World Bank staff, other technical assistance providers and donors with legitimate interest, including members of the Steering Committee of CARTAC, shall require the explicit consent of the TA recipient and the IMF’s Statistics Department.”

MEMBERS

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PARTNERS

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Summary of Mission Outcomes and Priority Recommendations

1. A Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) technical assistance (TA) mission on external sector statistics (ESS) to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of St. Lucia was conducted during October 28–November 1, 2024. The balance of payments (BOP) and the international investment position (IIP) are compiled jointly by the CSO and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB). In that context, two staff members from the ECCB participated in the mission. The mission focused on data collection issues related to trade in goods, travel exports, and the Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP). The mission reviewed available information for the revised 2023 BOP that will be disseminated in December 2024. The CSO indicated that most recommendations from the previous mission were pending due to competing priorities and the impact of remote work on their processes.¹

2. Regarding trade in goods, the mission confirmed with the Customs and Excise Department (CED) that all customs regimes are included in the trade flows provided to the CSO. It also verified with the Free Trade Zone Management Authority (FZMA) that all goods transactions in the zone are registered by the CED. The CSO committed to ensuring that the appropriate customs regimes, according to the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition (BPM6), as indicated during the mission, are considered in its trade database.²

3. Further efforts are needed to improve the quality of the data on stay over visitor's average daily expenditure and length of stay. Following a previous mission recommendation, the St. Lucia Tourist Board (SLTB) incorporated valid responses from visitors that stayed in hotels other than the all-inclusive resorts (that were previously disregarded due to missing information on detailed expenditures) for the December 2023 estimates. However, the mission identified that the upward bias persists.³ A new legislation on tourism was promulgated and a new CEO assumed office at the SLTB. In addition, to improve data coverage for the BOP, SLTB (with the support of the CSO and the ECCB) needs to obtain better knowledge on the yacht industry by meeting yacht associations and companies offering goods and services for yachts, to design surveys and include those expenses in the BOP.

4. No progress has been made on the pending information from the CIP Unit. Although the CIP Unit committed to sharing information on the flows and stocks of the foreign escrow accounts and land sales to nonresidents in August 2023, this information is still pending. Additional requests had been made. Since 2020, according to the alien landholding legislation, the CIP has responsibility for the application process for foreigners' licenses to buy property in St. Lucia, which was previously the duty of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).⁴

5. According to previous discussions with the ECCB, the recommendation to identify potential Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) will be included in the work plan for the migration to the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, seventh edition (BPM7). During previous missions, the IRD indicated that 3,884 international business companies (IBCs) were incorporated in St. Lucia at the end of 2022. The IRD also provided values for gross income by foreign revenue classified by economic sector for these companies in 2022. However, clarifications on the presented values have been requested as they seemed to be too low considering the quantities of companies involved.

6. Revised 2023 BOP estimates compared with those published in March 2024 were reviewed. The current response rate to surveys is low and compilers will continue incorporating data to the BOP and IIP. With the information received, the 2023 net errors and omissions (NEOs) went from negative EC$1 million as per data disseminated in March 2024 to negative EC$68 million at the end of the mission (an increase of 1.0 percentage point of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)).

7. To support progress in the above work areas, the mission recommended a detailed action plan with the following priority recommendations.

^{Table 1.}

St. Lucia: Priority Recommendations

^{Table 1.}

St. Lucia: Priority Recommendations

Target Date	Priority Recommendation	Responsible Institutions
March 2025	CSO to confirm the applicable CED regimes (outright exportation, re-exportation, home use, re-importation, customs warehousing, other procedures) are considered in the trade database.	CSO
April 2025	Follow up on the request to the CIP Unit on the flows and stocks of the foreign escrow accounts by the real estate developers under the CIP program.	CSO
June 2025	SLTB, with the support of the CSO and the ECCB, to start surveying the yacht industry and its business service providers.	SLTB, CSO and ECCB

View Table

^{Table 1.}

St. Lucia: Priority Recommendations

Target Date	Priority Recommendation	Responsible Institutions
March 2025	CSO to confirm the applicable CED regimes (outright exportation, re-exportation, home use, re-importation, customs warehousing, other procedures) are considered in the trade database.	CSO
April 2025	Follow up on the request to the CIP Unit on the flows and stocks of the foreign escrow accounts by the real estate developers under the CIP program.	CSO
June 2025	SLTB, with the support of the CSO and the ECCB, to start surveying the yacht industry and its business service providers.	SLTB, CSO and ECCB

Table of Contents

• Summary of Mission Outcomes and Priority Recommendations

• Table of Contents

• Acronyms and Abbreviations

• Section I. Detailed Technical Assessment and Recommendations

• A. Action Plan

• B. Institutional Environment

• C. Trade Balance

• D. Travel Credits

• E. The Citizenship by Investment (CIP)

• F. Special Purpose Entities (SPEs)

• G. 2023 Revised BOP

• H. Officials Met During the Mission

• Appendices

• I. Progress Made on the Action Plan of the Previous Mission

• II. Balance of Payments 2021–2023, Revised vs. Published March 2024 (EC$ million)

• III. Response Rate to Balance of Payments Survey 2019–2023 (Percentage)

• IV. Exports, Imports and Re-exports (US$ million)

• V. Travel Credits Estimates 2018–2023 (US$ million)

• VI. St. Lucia Tourist Board (SLTB) – Expenditure Surveys Methodology, Arrivals and Sample Size Obtained (2018–2023)

• VII. Exercise Tourism Expenditure

• Tables

• 1. Priority Recommendations

• 2. Exports, Imports and Re-exports (EC$ million)

• 3. Daily Expenditure and Length of Stay Averages

• 4. Net Errors and Omissions 2016–2022 (Published vs. Revised)

• 5. U.S. Travelers to St. Lucia

• 6. U.S. Average Daily Expenditure

• 7. VES Total Expenditure

Acronyms and Abbreviations