Above: Planning Institute of Jamaica Director General Dr Gladstone Hutchinson (FP)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica’s economy grew by 0.1 percent in the second quarter, according to data released by the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

PIOJ Director General Dr Gladstone Hutchinson said the largely flat growth came against a relatively stable macroeconomic environment, and came in large part due to “larger-than-expected contractions in some key industries.”

The “main detractors” from growth in the period were transport, storage and communications, each of which saw a 0.4-percent-point decrease; and mining and quarrying and construction, which each fell by 0.2 percentage points.

“Combined, these industries detracted 0.8 percentage points from GDP growth,” Hutchinson said.

Seeing positive increases in the second quarter were agriculture, wholesale and retail trade and hotel and restaurants. Together, the sectors combined for 0.9 percentage points of growth.

A report in April by the International Monetary Fund projected Jamaica’s Gross Domestic Product to grow by 1 percent overall in 2012.