Grenada profile - Leaders

28 May 2015

Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a governor

Prime Minister: Keith Mitchell

Veteran Grenadan leader Keith Mitchell returned to office in February 2013 after a five-year gap when his centre-right New National Party swept the board in parliamentary elections.

The party campaigned on plans to attract investors to boost jobs. In 2013, Mr Mitchell moved to halve income tax for those earning less than 60,000 East Caribbean dollars (about $22,000), from 30% to 15%.

Mr Mitchell's victory reversed his emphatic defeat by the liberal National Democratic Congress in the 2008 election, which ended his first, 13-year stint in office.

But the new prime minister, Tillman Thomas, proved unable to revive Grenada's financial fortunes, hard hit by the 2004 Hurricane Ivan's devastation of the island's agriculture and infrastructure, as well as the world economic crisis, which undermined tourism.

Unemployment reached 30%, and the debt burden prompted the Caribbean Development Bank to demand urgent measures to boost investor confidence.

Born in 1946 and a statistician by training, Keith Mitchell was elected to parliament in 1984 and took over the New National Party leadership in 1989. He led the party to three successive election wins in 1995, 1999 and 2003, before losing in 2008.