More bad News For Aruba … Money Supply Decreases by Afl 4.1 M in July 2006

From The CENTRALE BANK VAN ARUBA

This can be the only reason why the Aruba government has invited the Dutch police to take over the Natalee Holloway investigation. Month after month tourism decreases and month after month the money supply and revenue does as well. The latest numbers from July 2006 show a decrease in money supply of Afl 4.1 million as well as across the board losses in tourism indicators.

In July 2006, money supply decreased by Afl. 4.1 million to Afl. 2,464.9 million. This decline was the result of an Afl. 3.7 million decrease in net domestic assets and an Afl. 0.4 million net outflow of funds to abroad. The latter caused net foreign assets to fall slightly to Afl. 648.4 million at the end of July 2006, which is Afl. 34.5 million or 5.6 percent higher than in the corresponding month a year earlier.

Other tourism numbers show a continued decline. All three sectors of “stay-over visitors”, “hotel occupancy”, “cruise ship passengers” and “number of cruise ships” all suffered significant losses.

In May 2006, the number of stay-over visitors and their nights spent on the island fell by 6.7 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, compared to the corresponding month in 2005. Data available for the first five months of 2006 show that stay-over tourists and their nights spent on the island decreased by 10.6 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively. The data on tourist arrivals and nights spent on the island for June and July 2006 are not yet available.According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the average occupancy rate of the hotels contracted by 9.4 percentage points to 76.6 percent in July 2006, compared to the corresponding month a year earlier.

Data published by the Cruise Tourism Authority show that the number of cruise passengers dropped by 16.7 percent in July 2006, compared to the corresponding month of 2005, while the number of ship calls recorded a 43 percent decline.

Read the full Summary of the Monthly Bulletin of the Centrale Bank van Aruba from July 2006.