Imports reach as high as $2,2 billion. Crude oil, foodstuffs and building materials are all on the import list.
Roughly 32% of the total number of jobs comes from retailing or such services as leisure resorts, hotels, motels and restaurants scattered all across the islands. The number of tourist that traveled to the islands back in 1986 reached 1,5 million, yielding income gains for $500 million. An aluminum-oxide processing plant, shut down in 1985, was bought in 1989 by foreign investors on raw materials. That plant could churn out a 700-metric-ton annual throughput. Shipments to the U.S. and Europe began in 1990.
70 % off the gross national product stems from tourism, its major economic activity. It totals $12,000 million and $12,500 per capita.
In the late 1980s, the yearly budget went way beyond $303,5 million. Tourism bears the brunt of the Islands’ economy as it main income source. Rum, wristwatches, fabrics and pharmaceutical products feature on the list of manufactured goods. There are alumina and oil-processing plants on the islands. The domestic and local markets depend entirely on the U.S. and it basically hinges upon an oil refinery owned by Ameranda Hess Corporation, a St. Croix-based U.S. firm. This is, indeed, the world’s largest oil refinery of its kind, processing over 700,000 barrels a day for the American market. Corporate influence on politics is huge: it means 300 jobs plus 1,700 part-timers; it also meets all of the Virgin Islands’ energy needs. Nevertheless, the blooming tourist industry goes on to be the number-one income source.
