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The Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange Ltd (ECSE) was incorporated in St Kitts under the St Kitts Companies Act and began operations on 19th October 2001. Along with its two wholly-owned subsidiaries, the Eastern Caribbean Central Securities Registry (ECCSR) and the Eastern Caribbean Central Securities Depository (ECCSD), the ECSE operates a regional securities market facilitating the buying and selling of range financial products, including corporate stocks and bonds and Government securities. It is the first fully electronic regional exchange in the entire Western Hemisphere, with completely paperless trading. It also has the fastest settlement period for trade execution at T+1. Unlike many exchanges, regionally and globally, it is a public ‘for profit’ limited liability company, with 49 shareholders in 11 Caribbean countries. The ECSE Group offers a full range of securities trading and ancillary services to listed and non-listed companies in the entire CARICOM region.

The Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange is a regional securities market, established by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and licensed under the Securities Act, uniform regional legislation governing securities market activities. The ECSE is designed to facilitate the buying and selling of financial products, including corporate stocks and bonds and government

securities, for the eight ECCB member territories of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It is the first regional securities market in the Western Hemisphere.

Since the 2008 financial crisis has focused largely on the socio-economic fallout in Europe and North America, due to the vulnerability of their economies, nations in the Caribbean have been hit especially hard. Despite the passage of several years, there has been very little effort from multilateral organizations to take concrete steps to alleviate the compounding economic pressures the region is facing. However, in early 2013, the International Monetary Fund acknowledged specificities of the Caribbean economy in a report titled Caribbean Small States: Challenges of High Debt and Low Growth. The report highlighted the unique economic problems faced by the Caribbean, particularly with respect to “low growth, high debt, significant vulnerabilities, and limited resilience to shocks.”

While these problems, unfortunately, do apply to the majority of the Caribbean, the new millennium has been particularly unkind to Grenada. Grenada entered the 21st century on the very unstable economic footing, as a ruling by the World Trade Organization put an end to the island’s protected agricultural trade with Europe. As a result, thousands of small farmers were out of work and Grenada lost a primary sector of its economy and the resulting government revenues. Making matters worse, Grenada was hit by successive hurricanes (Ivan and Emily) in 2004 and 2005, costing damage of an estimated 200% of its GDP. To spur economic recovery, Grenada renewed its focus on tourism, an industry whose subsequent hit by the 2008 financial crisis sent Grenada into a downward spiral. This devastating sequence of events has undermined the Government of Grenada’s ability to service its debt. The economic instability also had serious socio-economic implications, with Grenada’s poverty rate reaching 37% and an unemployment rate estimated at 25% in 2008. With the lack of economic growth, Grenada fueled its economy by the signing additional loans, leading Grenada to accumulate a debt to GDP ratio of nearly 110 percent. Given the inability of the government of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas to take the country off of the never-ending treadmill of debt, the voters of Grenada overwhelmingly voted to bring about change in the 2013 general elections.

As a result, the New National Party led by Keith Mitchell won all 15 seats, shutting out the incumbent Tillman Thomas and his National Democratic Congress Party from power. Prime Minister Mitchell took a strong stand of the unsustainable nature of the economy committing in March that no new loans would be taken out to finance the debt. What makes Grenada’s position unique is that the government has not been negotiating with the IMF in the traditional manner. The long-established manner was that economic restructuring was a highly undemocratic process in which governments would accept programs which disproportionately affect the lives of the poor and vulnerable. Instead, on October 1, the Government of Grenada signed a memorandum of intent to work with the Committee of Social Partners which is made up of the Grenada Conference of Churches, the Grenada Private Sector Organization, the Grenada Trade Union Council, and the Inter-Agency Group of Development Organizations.

When US troops withdrew from Grenada in December 1983, Nicholas Brathwaite of the National Democratic Congress was appointed prime minister of an interim administration by Scoon until elections could be organized. The first democratic elections since 1976 were held in December 1984 and were won by the Grenada National Party under Herbert Blaize who served as prime minister until his death in December 1989.

In 2000–02, much of the controversy of the late 1970s and early 1980s was once again brought into the public consciousness with the opening of the truth and reconciliation commission. The commission was chaired by a Roman Catholic priest, Father Mark Haynes, and was tasked with uncovering injustices arising from the PRA, Bishop's regime, and before. It held a number of hearings around the country. Brother Robert Fanovich, head of Presentation Brothers' College (PBC) in St. George's tasked some of his senior students with conducting a research project into the era and specifically into the fact that Maurice Bishop's body was never discovered. Paterson also uncovered that there was still a lot of resentment in Grenadian society resulting from the era and a feeling that there were many injustices still unaddressed.

On September 7, 2004, after being hurricane-free for 49 years, the island was directly hit by Hurricane Ivan. Ivan struck as a Category 3 hurricane and damaged or destroyed 90% of the island's homes. On July 14, 2005, Hurricane Emily, a Category 1 hurricane at the time, struck the northern part of the island with 80-knot (150 km/h; 92 mph) winds, causing an estimated USD $110 million (EC$297 million) worth of damage. By December 2005, 96% of all hotel rooms were open for business and to have been upgraded in facilities and strengthened to an improved building code. The agricultural industry and in particular the nutmeg industry suffered serious losses, but that event has begun changes in crop management and it is hoped that as new nutmeg trees gradually mature, the industry will return to its pre-Ivan position as a major supplier in the Western world. In April 2007, Grenada jointly hosted (along with several other Caribbean nations) the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The Island's Prime Minister was the CARICOM representative on cricket and was instrumental in having the World Cup games brought to the region. After Hurricane Ivan, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) paid for the new $40 million national stadium and provided the aid of over 300 laborers to build and repair it. During the opening ceremony, the anthem of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) was accidentally played instead of the PRC's anthem, leading to the firing of top officials. The 2008 election was won by the National Democratic Congress under Tillman Thomas. The 2013 election was won by the New National Party under Keith Mitchell winning all 15 seats.

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The history of currency in the British colony of Grenada closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight (Spanish dollars and later Mexican dollars) continued to form a major portion of the circulating currency right into the latter half of the nineteenth century. Britain adopted the gold standard in 1821 and an imperial order-in-council of 1838 resulted in Grenada formally adopting the sterling currency in the year 1840. However, despite the circulation of British coins in Grenada, the silver pieces of eight continued to circulate alongside them and the private sector continued to use dollar accounts for reckoning. The international silver crisis of 1873 signaled the end of the silver dollar era in the West Indies and silver dollars were demonetized in Grenada in 1878. This left a state of affairs, in which the British coinage circulated, being reckoned in dollar accounts at an automatic conversion rate of 1 dollar = 4 shillings 2 pence. From 1949, with the introduction of the British West Indies dollar, the currency of Grenada became officially tied up with that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. The British sterling coinage was eventually replaced by a new decimal coinage in 1955, with the new cent being equal to one half of the old penny.

The East Caribbean dollar (XCD) is the currency of all seven full members and one associate member of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. It has existed since 1965, is the successor to the British West Indies dollar, and it is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $ or, alternatively, EC$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. The EC$ is subdivided into 100 cents. It has been pegged to the United States dollar since July 7, 1976. Anguilla's local currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar, which is fixed to the U.S. dollar at $2.72(EC) to $1(USD). The U.S. dollar is accepted pretty much everywhere on the island. While visiting Anguilla, you can receive change in either U.S. dollars or Eastern Caribbean dollars or even both. Airports and hotels have currency exchanges but go to a bank to get the best rates. Before leaving your home country, exchange some money for travel incidentals such as tipping at the airport and ground transportation to your accommodations. This is good advice for U.S. citizens, as well. Even though most places accept U.S. currency, it's always good to be prepared in case something out of the ordinary happens. You don't want to worry about getting Eastern Caribbean money while you're trying to get settled in.

Despite the dominance of the euro since January 2002 within the mother country, Holland, the legal tender on the Dutch side of St. Maarten is still the Netherlands Antilles florin (NAF); the official exchange rate is NAF 1.79 for each $1. U.S. dollars are really the coin of the realm here, and prices in hotels and most restaurants and shops are designated in dollars. On the French side (as well as on St. Barts), the official monetary unit is the euro, with most establishments widely quoting and accepting either dollars or NAF guilders as well. At press time, the U.S. dollar was trading at $1.20 to the euro. Anguilla's official currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar, though U.S. dollars are accepted everywhere; the exchange rate is set permanently at roughly 2.70EC to $1.

Until 1981, the coins of the BWI$ circulated. In 1981, a new series of coins was introduced in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 25 cents and 1 dollar. The round, aluminum bronze dollar coin was replaced in 1989 with a decagonal, cupro-nickel type. Higher denominations exist, but these were issued only as medal-coins. 1 and 2 cents were withdrawn from circulation in July 2015 and will remain legal tender till 30 June 2020. In 1965, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Authority issued banknotes in denominations of 1, 5, 20 and 100 dollars, all featuring Pietro Annigoni’s 1956 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in the regalia of Order of the Garter. The first issues in the name of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank in 1985 were of the same denominations, with the addition of 10 dollar notes. The last 1 dollar notes were issued in 1989 and 50 dollar notes were introduced in 1993. On April 1, 2008, the East Caribbean Central Bank issued a new series of banknotes like the preceding issues, but omit both the bar code and the country code letterings which form part of the serial number on current notes. In 2012, the East Caribbean Central Bank issued a series of banknotes with Braille features in an effort to provide notes which are easier for blind and visually impaired persons to use. The raised Braille characters on the upgraded notes feature a Cricket theme in the form of balls and stumps. These characters have been added to the 10-, 20-, 50-, and 100 dollar notes.