301790
English (official), Creole (among Haitian immigrants)
NASSAU (capital) 267,000 (2014)
- Conventional long form
- Commonwealth of The Bahamas
- Conventional short form
- The Bahamas
- Local long form
- Local short form
parliamentary democracy (Parliament) under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm
- Name
- Nassau
- Geographic coordinates
- 25 05 N, 77 21 W
- Time difference
- UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
- Daylight saving time
- +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends first Sunday in November
has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; non-party state to the ICCt
The Bahamas has the second highest per capital GDP in the English-speaking Caribbean with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and international banking. Tourism accounts for approximately 75-80% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half of the archipelago's labor force. Financial services constitute the second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy, accounting for about 15% of GDP. Manufacturing and agriculture combined contribute less than 7% of GDP and show little growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors. On January 1, 2015, the Government introduced a 7.5% Value Added Tax (VAT) on most goods and services, a measure designed to strengthen the fiscal balance sheet. In August 2016, Moody’s downgraded the Bahamas’ bond and issue ratings to Baa3 from Baa2 with a stable outlook, maintaining that rating in its February 2017 review. In December 2016, S&P downgraded the country to BB+ (speculative grade) from BBB- (investment grade) with a stable outlook based on projections of slow economic growth and the pace of debt accumulation. The Bahamas is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that is not a member of the World Trade Organization.
- Inflation
- -0.346%
- Total tax rate (% of commercial profits)
- 33.8%
- Real Interest Rate
- 2.778%
- Manufacturing, value added (% of GDP)
- 3.265%
- Current Account Balance
- US$ -1,106,292,887
- Labor Force, Total
- 230,471
- Employment in Agriculture
- 3.68%
- Employment in Industry
- 12.91%
- Employment in Services
- 82.99%
- Unemployment Rate
- 15.31%
- Imports of goods and services
- US$ 3,983,000,000
- Exports of goods and services
- US$ 3,654,000,000
- Total Merchandise Trade
- 30.73%
- FDI, net inflows
- US$ 73,723,568
- Commercial Service Exports
- US$ 2,893,456,599
citrus, vegetables; poultry
tourism, banking, oil bunkering, maritime industries, transshipment and logistics, salt, aragonite, pharmaceuticals
- Commodities
- Rock lobster, aragonite, crude salt, polystyrene products
- Partners
- Poland 25.9%, Cote dIvoire 20.6%, US 15.6%, Dominican Republic 14.1% (2015)
- Commodities
- machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, mineral fuels; food and live animals
- Partners
- US 22.8%, China 15.2%, Japan 9.7%, Poland 7.8%, South Korea 7.4%, Colombia 6.9%, Brazil 5.7%, Singapore 5.6% (2015)