The island's economy has been dominated by five main industries: gold mining, phosphate mining (The Aruba Phosphaat Maatschappij), aloe export, petroleum refineries (The Lago Oil & Transport Company and the Arend Petroleum Maatschappij Shell Co.), and tourism.
Aruba has one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean region including a low unemployment rate. About three quarters of the Aruban gross national product is earned through tourism or related activities. Most tourists are from Venezuela and the United States (predominantly from eastern and southern states). Before the "Status Aparte" (a separate completely autonomous country/state within the Kingdom), oil processing was the dominant industry in Aruba despite expansion of the tourism sector. Today, the influence of the oil processing business is minimal. The size of the agriculture and manufacturing sectors also remains minimal.
The GDP per capita for Aruba was estimated to be $21,800 in 2004; among the highest in the Caribbean and the Americas. Its main trading partners are Venezuela, the United States and the Netherlands.
The inflation on Aruba in 2007 was 8.7%.
The exchange rate of the Aruban florin has remained steady in recent years at 1.78 florins to 1 US dollar. Because of this fact, and due to a large number of American tourists, many businesses operate using US dollars instead of florins, especially in the hotel & resort districts
