By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Cayman Islands’ economy is trending upwards, with positive growth of 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2011, according to a report from the government’s Economics and Statistics Office released Friday.

The growth represented a 1.2 percent increase from the same period in 2010, when it actualy contracted by 1.3 percent.

Estimates had predicted 0.9 percent growth for the entire calendar 2011 year.

Premier McKeeva Bush, who is also Cayman’s finance minister, said he was “very upbeat” about the future of the economy.

According to the report, tourist arrivals jumped by 8 percent over the same period in 2010, for a total of 604,470 arrivals. Hotel occupancy rates narrowed from 76.1 percent in 2010 to 68.6 percent this year, although there was an increase in the average length of stay, from 4.4 days to 4.8.

There was also an 11.9 percent increase in new company registrations.