Caribbean countries have made some progress in diversifying their economies, but production and exports are still relatively concentrated in a few activities. Agriculture and mining remain important in many countries, but the structure of production has begun to shift more heavily toward services. Growth in the sector has been adversely affected, in part, by natural disasters in the last few years. The market share of the English-speaking countries within the broader Caribbean region has been falling in the 1990s. Countries in the region are highly open.
Imports consist mainly of manufactures, especially consumer goods.
The region's agricultural exports are characterized by high production costs and are sold in protected markets. Caribbean countries have traditionally relied heavily on a system of preferential access to markets for commodities such as bananas and sugar. The commitment to a fixed exchange rate by many of the small island economies in the region has been a key factor in creating a stable macroeconomic framework and in keeping inflation close to international levels. The cost of banking services is relatively high because of the lack of economies of scale, relatively undiversified loan portfolios, and the oligopolistic nature of banking in the region. In the 1990s, fiscal deficits in the region tended to widen.