Economic Overview
The dominican economy depends on agriculture, primarily bananas, and remains highly vulnerable to climatic conditions and international economic developments. tourism has increased as the government seeks to promote dominica as an "ecotourism" destination. in 2003, the government began a comprehensive restructuring of the economy - including elimination of price controls, privatization of the state banana company, and tax increases - to address dominica's economic and financial crisis of 2001-02 and to meet imf targets. this restructuring paved the way for the current economic recovery - real growth for 2006 reached a two-decade high - and will help to reduce the debt burden, which remains at about 100% of gdp. in order to diversify the island's production base, the government is attempting to develop an offshore financial sector and is researching dominica's capability to export geothermal energy.
Environmental Issues
Na
Government Type
Parliamentary democracy
Population
72,514 (july 2008 est.)
Location
Caribbean, island between the caribbean sea and the north atlantic ocean, about half way between puerto rico and trinidad and tobago
Area
Total: 754 sq km
land: 754 sq km
water: 0 sq km
Slightly more than four times the size of washington, dc
Country Aliases
Conventional long form: commonwealth of dominica
conventional short form: dominica
Capital
Name: roseau
geographic coordinates: 15 18 n, 61 24 w
time difference: utc-4 (1 hour ahead of washington, dc during standard time)
International Disputes
Dominica is the only caribbean state to challenge venezuela's sovereignty claim over aves island and joins the other island nations in challenging whether the feature sustains human habitation, a criterion under the un convention on the law of the sea (unclos), which permits venezuela to extend its exclusive economic zone (eez) and continental shelf claims over a large portion of the eastern caribbean sea
Sources: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
