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Caribbean Islands Construction
During the mid-1980s, construction activity declined sharply as
the major public sector investment programs of the 1970s and early
1980s were completed and as tight monetary conditions reduced the
availability of credit. From 1983 to 1985, the construction
industry's output fell some 21 percent annually, reducing its share
of GDP from 15 percent in 1982 to 11 percent in 1985. Total output
in 1985 equaled US$792 million. Most construction activity in the
late 1980s was limited to minor road building, housing and
factories, and some hotel construction. Although the Robinson
government in the late 1980s was proposing that the construction
sector be the catalyst of new economic activity, it remained
unlikely that the industry would regain the prominence it held in
the 1970s. The sharp decline in construction, the major employer of
the economy, was expected to exacerbate the worsening unemployment
rate.
In the late 1980s, Trinidad and Tobago was becoming less
dependent on imports in the construction industry as increased
steel and cement capacity was attained. The low quality of locally
produced cement also encouraged the introduction of higher grade
cements in the 1980s. Housing projects were also becoming more
sophisticated, including self-help schemes, after improper design
and construction had made government housing projects unpopular in
previous years.
Data as of November 1987
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