FINANCE Minister Winston Jordan has said that negative statements about the economy by the Private Sector Commission (PSC) must be supported by evidence
Jordan made the call at a press briefing at his Main Street, Geoegetown office on Wednesday.

“The PSC has a habit of trotting out statements and I have had a number of meetings with budgets sessions where statements are trotted out and they are hardly backed by figures, it’s just statements they throw out there about the economy is in decline; but where is the evidence of this and people will continue making statements,” the finance minister said.

He continued: “Until people bring credible evidence, like the Bank of Guyana report, or the IMF report or Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) report stating that there is a downturn, then they will just be statements. As far as I am concerned, they are irresponsible statements. Show me that your sales have declined; you use to make $500M every month but now I am down to $350M, that is the first evidence, but then we have to get the numbers.”

Noting various causes of decline, the minister questioned whether what is happening to the businesses is really because of the economy or is something of the businesspersons’ creation, or decline due to competition, or people shopping elsewhere.

He said many factors must be considered before broad statements are made.
“We get our monetary data from the Bank of Guyana, we don’t pluck it from anywhere, so you have evidence showing that rather than a declining private sector, credit has been expanding, and we can see evidence of that all over Guyana. Where is the evidence of decline?” Minister Jordon asked.

A DIFFERENT PICTURE
The finance minister said many persons are buying properties and investing in Guyana tremendously. He noted, too, that with the recent oil find, “this is a paradise waiting to blossom, so why would you not invest in such an economy”.

Minister Jordon said on each occasion he meets with the private sector, he asks for the evidence pertaining to claims being made about the economy, “but that is where the problem is, I don’t get it.”

Meanwhile, he noted that political uncertainty and threats of a review by the Opposition (People’s Progressive Party) party has created a setback in the sale of several of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) estates.

“The sale of the estates has been delayed partly due to the political side because nobody is expressing interest when the Opposition says ‘we are going to review sales and so on’ and that happened in the past too where people pulled out. They don’t express interest in an atmosphere of uncertainty where you’re suggesting this review, which is another word for harassment, will take place so that has not gone down too well,” Minister Jordon said.

Noting that the government is in an “interim” position, Jordan said government has also decided against any major sale of State assets. “I don’t think at this stage, quite frankly, with our status of interim that we would want to engage in any major privatisation at this time,” he said.