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 Current time in Andorra |
Until the beginning of the 20th century the Andorran economy was that of subsistence, based on agriculture, livestock farming and commerce. After World War II the Andorran economy started to boom with growth reflected mainly in the tourism and commercial sectors.
The GDP per capita in the Principality at 29,621 is average for the Euro zone, but above both the USA and Japan and below Luxembourg and Switzerland. The Andorran Consumer Price Index is higher than the Euro zone average. The CPI for 2006 closed at 3.69%. This was the first year that the ISI (indirect tax on services rendered) was applied and its impact on inflation was 0.9%. The year 2007 was affected by the sharp rise in petrol prices, making the CPI for that year 3.9% (see Andorra News for more recent data)
The Principality has 8,699 companies and employs a total of 43,380 people. Small companies predominate, with the services sector (tourism, commerce, hotels, finance and liberal professions) by far the largest at 85.8%, followed by construction at 7.5% and the public sector at 3.2% (data source 2007).
Tourism and commerce go hand-in-hand in Andorra’s economy. Hotel accommodation represents 68% of tourism-related activities. The number of visitors per year is around 11 million. One of the strategic aims of Andorran tourism is to attract high end tourism and recent increases in hotel accommodation have been almost exclusively in the higher quality segment.
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