Though economic activity in Puerto Rico has picked up in recent months, businesses large and small are struggling, the Wall Street Journal reported. Electricity woes continue to plague the island, where 91 percent of power generation has been restored but the grid is prone to sudden outages. Insurance money has arrived slowly, with $1.7 billion paid in residential and business claims as of Jan. 31 — about 40 percent of the expected total, according to the island’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. And the market is shrinking as a result of an accelerating exodus of Puerto Ricans fleeing conditions on the island. An estimated 135,000 residents have relocated to the U.S. mainland since Maria, according to an analysis released this month by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at New York’s Hunter College. Read more. (Subscription required.)
In related news, structural reforms could boost Puerto Rico’s economy by as much as 1.5 percent, but federal tax law changes on top of deadly hurricanes pose additional challenges, the executive director of the island’s financial oversight board said, Reuters reported. Natalie Jaresko, who leads the federally appointed Financial Oversight and Management Board’s executive team, said that she expects the revised fiscal reform plans submitted by the U.S. commonwealth’s government to be certified on March 26. The three critical structural reform areas she highlighted were the electrical grid, overseen by the beleaguered Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) that is slated to be partially privatized; labor market reforms; and making it easier to do business. Read more.
The people of Puerto Rico need your help. Thousands are still without regular power service, and many more need to rebuild their homes. Please join the ABI Endowment and the Mariano Rivera foundation for a charity benefit for Puerto Rico on April 4, 2018, at the New York Athletic Club.
