Damage caused by Super Typhoon Yutu Photo: Mark Rabago
Super Typhoon Yutu may have struck the Northern Marianas at the tailend of 2018, but its vast destruction caused the islands' economy to contract by 20 percent last year.
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis said the CNMI's Gross Domestic Product fell to $US1.32 billion in 2018, a 19.6 percent fall from the year before.
In 2017, the CNMI's economy was the most robust it had been in years with GDP at $1.6 billion - a 25 percent increase from 2016.
The CNMI's delegate to the US Congress, Gregorio Kilili Sablan, said the economic downturn correlates with the absence of tourists, who stopped visiting after the typhoon hit.
Mr Sablan said he expected the Category 5 storm to have an even larger impact on economic data for 2019, as he said the CNMI was still struggling.
