MINISTER of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh yesterday announced that he will be presenting the National Budget for 2011 to the National Assembly on Monday, 17th January.
The Minister indicated that, as is the norm, the Budget will report on economic performance over the past year and, in this instance, that report can be expected to be a very favourable one given the continued resilience shown by the Guyanese economy.

The Budget is also expected to project continued strong performance by the domestic economy in 2011, and to reflect Government’s continued emphasis on investment in physical infrastructure and in expanding and improving social services, all with the aim of advancing the transformation that is already well underway in Guyana.

Budget 2010 was presented by Minister Singh on 8th February, 2010 under the theme ‘Consolidate Transform Sustain’, and was worth $142.8 billion, representing a 10.8 percent increase over the 2009 budget and making it the largest budget in Guyana’s history.

In his 2010 mid-year report on the Guyanese economy, Minister Singh reported that the economy recorded real growth of 2.8 percent in the first half of the year, with non-sugar gross domestic product expanding by 3.1 percent. This very positive result was achieved despite persistent difficulties in the sugar industry, continued adverse movement in commodity prices, and the effects of the sliding Euro.

Minister Singh also stated in the 2010 mid-year report that the domestic economy’s favourable performance demonstrated the strong underlying fundamentals on which the economy rests, and reflects gains made over the years as a result of Government’s efforts at diversifying the sources of growth.