Central Bank projects 3% growth rate
Minister in the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson being given a brief on the history of the Bank of Guyana at the launch of the financial institution’s 50th
Anniversary stamp on Wednesday (Delano Williams photo)
Minister in the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson being given a brief on the history of the Bank of Guyana at the launch of the financial institution’s 50th Anniversary stamp on Wednesday (Delano Williams photo)

THE Central Bank of Guyana has projected three percent growth in the country’s Gross Domestic Product, Governor of the Bank, Dr Gobind Ganga has said. Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the bank’s new stamp, Ganga stressed that, “starting from this year there has been a slowdown in the economy, particularly during and just after elections.” However, he said there is a projected growth of about three percent, as there is much hope of achieving it with three months to go before the year is completed.
Further, highlighting that the probability of achieving the target is good, Ganga said: “We recorded a bumper rice crop, the sugar output is expected to increase, the service sector has been doing well and although gold has been down, it is at an acceptable level… therefore, we are looking for a good outturn at the end of the year.”
Only recently President David Granger had said that the slowdown of the economy started since last year. “…when we speak about slowdown, the slowdown is perhaps a year or more old. It is not a recent slowdown, it has been taking place over a very long period of time,” Granger had told reporters at a press conference. “The slowdown is not a result of May 11th; if you look back at what has taken place in 2014, you’d see that bauxite prices flattened out, gold prices were dropping, sugar production was falling and generally, the more productive sectors, and don’t forget Guyana has not been able to uproot itself from what is called the “six sisters” – rice, sugar, gold, diamond, bauxite and timber,” the President said.
Guyana, he said, has been exporting the same things over the past 100 years and many of the products “started to show signs of anaemia in 2014.” Some, he said, were subject to world market prices. According to him, many persons have been leaving the gold industry because of low prices for gold, with a similar situation happening now in the rice industry.
Earlier this year the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) had projected a 4.5 per cent growth rate for Guyana, the highest for the Caribbean and the 11th in Latin America. The growth was tied to a buoyant agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors. The commission had said too that low fuel prices would continue to benefit the economy, but weak prices for the country’s mining outputs would have an adverse effect. According to ECLAC, although Guyana is not a tourism-based economy, the sector should see a boost from the opening of the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown. The survey also mentioned that the split of the Tourism, Industry and Commerce Ministry into the Tourism Ministry and the Business and Investment Ministry reflected plans to enhance the tourism infrastructure in Guyana in coming years. “Oil reserves, discovered in Guyana’s territorial waters in early 2015, may represent a further opportunity for Guyana to boost its [Gross Domestic Product] GDP and diversify its economy,” ECLAC said.

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