DESPITE utterances by the Private Sector, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and analysts, Finance Minister Winston Jordan maintains that the local economy is not sluggish. “We have been saying that the economy is in good shape,” said the Finance Minister, who noted that his report on the state of Guyana’s economy has been doubted by many.

Minister Jordan at press conference on Monday said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest report on Guyana said the country’s economy remains “resilient and continues to grow despite significant global headwinds”.
According to the IMF report, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2015 grew by three per cent despite lower commodity export prices, delays in budget implementation, and political uncertainty leading up to the May General elections.
Notwithstanding those hurdles, the IMF also stated that growth is projected at four per cent this year based on increased gold production and public investment.
“This clearly cannot be an economy that is on the decline, that is sluggish,” said the Finance Minister who referenced the IMF report following a team’s visit here during February 24–March 7 to hold discussions for the 2016 Article IV consultation.
Jordan noted that the APNU-AFC Government has been able to turn things around in Guyana over the year it has been in office.
“Within the space of a year of us coming here we would have been able to reverse what seemed to be a decline of three per cent last year… decline in the sense that the growth rate for last year was three per cent compared to 2014 where it was in excess of four per cent.”
The minister said despite all of the issues the Government inherited, “we were able to change a range of things.”
He pointed to salary increases in 2015, what he described as the largest increase since the 1999 Armstrong Award, where public servants received a 31 per cent increase; increase in pensions, removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on several items, incentives for small and medium scale miners, electricity and gas reductions reduction.
Minister Jordan said too that all the Government has achieved thus far happened despite “external and internal troubles”.
“It is not a doomed scenario, we are doing reasonably well and we will continue to do well with good management of the economy,” he said, while noting that measures have been put in place to ensure the economy continues to ascend.
The Finance Minister reminded the media during his media briefing that when the APNU-AFC Coalition Government took office last May, it was forced to divert significant amounts of money and other resources to the failing sugar industry, as well as the struggling rice industry, given the Guyana Venezuela border controversy.
“I’m not knocking any newspapers, but if all we can find in a one- year review are three or four of the usually suspects giving their view then we would always believe that nothing is happening, those suspects see nothing happening anyhow,” he remarked.
QUITE HEALTHY
Meanwhile, supporting the Minister of Finance was Dr Gobind Ganga, Governor Bank of Guyana (BoG). Dr Ganga said while there has been a mixed performance of the leading sectors in Guyana during the first quarter, the country’s financial system is “quite healthy”.
He pointed to the El Nino situation affecting the agriculture sector significantly with good outputs from the mining and manufacturing sectors. “Inflation will be constrained, it is now deflation, our estimate is about 0.5 per cent of the first quarter and on the external side we are seeing a net purchase of foreign exchange in between just over US$25M that has resulted in a relatively unchanged exchange rate which is 206.”
The BoG Governor said that the country’s current account has had significant movement in terms of deficit from US$73.4M to US$51.5M in terms of surplus. The capital account has moved from a deficit of US$51.5M to US$14.8M.
Dr Ganga told the media that there has been a marginal decline in external debt, while there has been an increase in domestic debt. He described the movement of the financial sector as a “flat movement”, while noting that there has been a five per cent increase in credit to the Private Sector in the areas of agriculture, mining, construction and the household.
The economy, he added has very sound macro-economic indicators and is progressing confidently.
Asked to speak specifically about the clamping down on the narcotics trade affecting the growth of the economy, Dr Ganga said while there are no official figures to provide a percentage, “there are estimates”.
He was supported by Minister Jordan who noted that many studies on the subject have been done in Guyana, two of which were completed by Professor Clive Thomas.
Those reports, he said showed that on the monetary side, relative to the economy, as much as 50 or 52 per cent of the economy is being controlled by the underworld (back tracking, drug trafficking and other illegal activities).
The minister said he is astonished by the calls made by some in the Private Sector for there to be the “easing up” on regulations so that the economy can flourish. Meanwhile, Minister Jordan said that the administration has been working to engage and secure loans from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and other international financial institutions for the 2016-2017 periods. Those loans, he said will be used in the areas of agricultural diversification, through the agriculture development loan, a business development loan, the Justice Sector Improvement Project (modernisation of the judiciary) and in the case of health, reducing child and infant mortality, suicide and suicide prevention.
The Finance Minister also made note of plans in the infrastructure sector where there would be upgrades to ports and water fronts, bridges and aerodromes, as well as water and sanitation, clean energy and rural and hinterland development projects.