A small shopping center called Quebradillas Plaza is located in this municipality along with some manufacturing industries.
An event that marked negatively in the decade of 1990s was the disappearance of the tax exemptions to the private corporations [section 936 of the code of the US Internal Revenue Service ], which at the time was the ideal excuse for the closing of one of the greater manufacturers of textiles in the northwest area of the island. This decline of the industry of the needle occurred similarly in the bordering cities like Isabela and Camuy, generating a regional economic decline as the locals greatly depended on these jobs. In nearby towns like Hatillo, Mayag�ez and Aguadilla, the arrival of megastores and new shopping centers attracted the jobs that used to be in Quebradillas, helping to create the general vision of the town as "ghostly" because there is little movement in the city.
At the same time, since the Island lacks mass public transportation, people must resort to private cars (although known as carro publico,public car in English) used as a bus as a mode of transportation, coupled with the fact that the only road to access the important cities, the Puerto Rico Highway 2, is maintained congested most of the day, makes it difficult for people in the area to find work and thus contributing to the general economic decline.
Ironically, the town possesses one tunnel that at the beginning of the 20th century was utilized by steam driven trains that traveled throughout the Island. The disappearance of the same is considered as one of the most ironic facts of the modern history of Puerto Rico, since these railways were very extensive, built through earthly bluffs and were of great utility. Today, its absence only aggravates the problem of mass transit and the dependence on privately owned vehicles as the only method of transportation.
The economy, entering into the 21st century, is based on the
