About Seychelles offshore companies, offshore jurisdiction, economy, taxation, banking and international affairs.
Seychelles’s statistics agency announced that the country’s inflation rate rose to 2.9% in July from 2.2% in June 2011.
This statement was read by an official from the Victoria-based National Bureau of Statistics on August 5, 2011.
In December 2010, the Seychelles’ National Bureau of Statistics issued a summary on an important phase of the Population and Housing Census exercise.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has stated that, after more than 1 year of preparation in terms of mapping, other technical processes and putting in place the required logistics, the main enumeration or actual ‘counting’ was undertaken between August 26 and August 30, 2010.
At the end of the main enumeration which covered the 3 main islands (Mahe, Praslin and La Digue) and satellite inner islands simultaneously, there were still a considerable number of households that had been missed out. Members of these households were either out of their homes when data collectors visited them or were overseas for a short length of time. Also, additional visits were required for households that had not cooperated with census officers at the 1st visit. The Bureau undertook a callback exercise on all households to enumerate the remaining population, which took more than a month.
According to the preliminary results published by the NBS, a total population count of 88,311 with the following gender composition (51.3%) males and (48.7%) females. An age group breakdown shows that 22.3% of the population are aged less than 15 years and 77.7% are aged 15 years and above.
Of the total population, the labour force stands at 50,923, which is 57.7%. Of these people, 94.2% are in employment and 5.8 % are the unemployed.
It should be noted that the figures are subject to change after data cleaning. However, the overall distribution and subgroup representation are not expected to change significantly.
The Bureau is processing all the collected data to publish the final results of the census during the last quarter of 2011.
According to Central Bank of Seychelles Governor Pierre Laporte, the offshore juridiction expects public debt to shrink to 50% of GDP (gross domestic product) by 2017 on further economic reforms.
In an interview held on April 2, Laporte said: “We are back on track after implementing reforms and tightening monetary policy”. He explained that public debt has decreased to about 80% of GDP from 160% 3 years ago. According to the IMF, Seychelles’ external debt almost halved over the past 2 years to 48% of GDP.
In 2008, after missing interest payments on bonds and defaulting on privately placed securities, when higher oil prices and falling tourism crimped government revenue, Seychelles sought help from the International Monetary Fund. Consumer prices declined on an annual basis in February after reaching a peak of 63% in December 2008.
Laporte said that the country’s structural reforms are ahead of target, with the fiscal surplus at 9% of GDP in 2010. The surplus is to decline to about 4.5% in 2011, because of investment in key infrastructure projects. The Central Bank’s website says that gross international reserves have surged to $244 million from $11 million in the 4th quarter of 2008.
Laporte said that FDI (foreign direct investment) will probably fall by 54% to $149 million in 2011 compared with a year earlier. Economic growth may slow to 4%.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Seychelles’ inflation fell to 0.4% year-on-year in December 2010 from 0.7% in November 2010.
This statistics was released by the NBS on January 7.
The National Bureau of Statistics said that the average rate of inflation in the 12 months to December 2010 was -2.4%, which is a result of the drops in the prices of fruit, meat and drinks. Also, decreases were recorded in the price of transport (-6.6%), recreation and culture (-6.4%) and miscellaneous goods and services (-1.0%).
In 2010, Seychelles welcomed almost 175 000 tourists, which is another record for visitor arrivals.
This record is around 17 000 higher than in 2009. In 2009, as many as 157 541 tourists visited the jurisdiction.
According to Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) chief executive Alain St Ange, the number of tourists visiting rose sharply in 2010 as a result of teamwork by all stakeholders in the tourism industry. The increase may also be attributed to the hard work added to the STB’s marketing drive by Seychelles’ tourism ambassadors abroad.
However, St Ange noted that a rise in the number of visitors does not necessarily mean increased spending by them. This factor depends not on the STB but on the private sector. He stated that there is a need to maximise earnings from tourism.
A survey of visitors for the 3rd quarter of 2010 carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that, among the different items tourists spent money on, restaurants were the highest apart from hotel bills and other hotel expenses. They were followed by excursions and souvenirs.
70% of the visitors surveyed came via tour operators, most of them came from Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. With 13 nights on average Visitors from Germany stayed in Seychelles longest, followed by those from Switzerland (12.9) the United Kingdom (11).
In accordance with a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, Seychelles consumer prices continued to decline in September 2010. However, as compared with the previous result, consumer prices index (CPI) declined at the slower pace.
According to the statistics released on October 6, the CPI dropped 1.1% year-on-year in September, which is slower than a 1.5% fall in the previous month. Consumer prices decreased for the 10th consecutive month. However, CPI started easing since April 2009. A year earlier, consumer prices increased 29.3%.
On a monthly basis, CPI was unchanged in September 2010, after rising 0.7% in August.
On July 12, Seychellois President James Michel said that piracy in the Indian Ocean has affected insurance costs. Because of piracy threats, insurance costs in Seychelles soared, which decreased ports and fishery revenue.
President said: “Insurance costs have ballooned by 50%. Port and fisheries receipts have declined by 30%”. He also added that while trade levels go down, “anarchy is being exported across our region”.
According to Michel, piracy caused the loss of 4% of the Seychelles’ GDP in 2009.
In July 2010, Seychelles’ National Statistics Bureau published consumer price statistics.
According to the published data, consumer prices in Seychelles fell 3.6% in June 2010 as compared with June 2009. The All Items CPI in June 2010 stood at 180.7 compared to 187.4 a year ago.
The Consumer Price Index or CPI is an index or tool used to measure price changes in goods and services with reference to a base period for which the index is set to equal 100. An increase or a decrease in this index reflects an increase or decrease in the price of the good or service compared to the price in the base period. It should be noted that rapid increases in the index reveal that the market structure is changing. The movement in index from period to period can be expressed as a percentage change or changes in index points.