Estimates of gross domestic product for American Samoa show that real GDP–GDP adjusted to remove price changes–increased 1.1 percent in 2015 after increasing 1.3 percent in 2014. For comparison, real GDP for the United States (excluding the territories) increased 2.6 percent in 2015 after increasing 2.4 percent in 2014.
The growth in the American Samoa economy reflected increases in exports of goods and government spending. These increases were partly offset by an increase in imports of goods, which is a subtraction item in the calculation of GDP. Exports of goods grew for a second consecutive year. This growth reflected increased activity of the tuna canning industry, which continued to increase its output after opening a multimillion-dollar canning plant in early 2015.
Government spending also increased, reflecting growth in spending by the territorial government. Major territorial government projects in 2015 included the rebuilding of the Satala Power Plant and the telecommunication authority’s work to improve broadband capacity and coverage in American Samoa.
The estimates of GDP for American Samoa for 2015, along with estimates of GDP by industry and compensation by industry for 2014 — all released today — were developed under the Statistical Improvement Program funded by the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Moving forward, an agreement between OIA and BEA will extend and improve the estimates of GDP for American Samoa. The information provided by the American Samoa Government will continue to be critical to the successful production of these estimates.
BEA currently plans to release GDP estimates for 2016 in the summer of 2017. GDP by industry and compensation by industry estimates for 2015 will also be released at the same time.