Also, 30.5% of the households and 36.2% of the population is considered to be indigent. Three out of every ten workers are engaged in the informal sector where work is irregular and economic returns are unstable. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the gross domestic product, or GDP, shows a real growth rate of 4%. The GDP per capita is $2,600. Breaking down the GDP composition by sector, agriculture accounts for 10.6%, industry is 17.5%, and services account for 71.9%. The inflation rate of consumer prices is around 2%. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines exports $47.8 million worth of goods. Of these export commodities, bananas account for 39%. Other commodities include eddoes and dasheen (taro), arrowroot starch, and tennis racquets. Taro is a large perennial herb that yields about 50% starch from its roots. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines imports about $180 million worth of goods. These import commodities consist of foodstuffs, machinery & equipment, chemicals & fertilizers, and minerals & fuels.Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’s currency is the East Caribbean Dollar, and the exchange rate is EC$2.70/US$1.COMMUNICATIONSaint Vincent and the Grenadines has a fully digital telephone system with over 20,500 main lines in use. There is both national and international service available. Cellular phone service is available and easy to use, even from pleasure boats among the islands. Visitors can even use their own cellular phone from home, or rent one from their hotel or yacht company. There are four radio broadcast stations; one AM, and three FM. There are approximately 77,000 radios on the islands, and most of them will be in use to listen to cricket matches, which is a very popular sport in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. There is only one public television broadcast station, which uses three repeaters to cover the islands. There is also one cable television station included in the Kingstown cable television ...
