Guyana’s economy is now on a solid footing and this is  a result of astute and sound macroeconomic management which the major international financial institutions have alluded to.

And this is not surprising, because any objective analyst would concede this because there has been consistent economic growth, stabilisation of inflation, huge investments, etc. What is remarkable is that these achievements have come during a difficult period of global financial crisis and spiraling fuel prices.

According to the World Bank, “for the past several years policy makers have been constrained by an overriding national obligation: the need to reduce inflation rates to acceptable ranges. In this regard and others, Guyana’s record of macroeconomic management has been successful.”

“Inflation has been reduced, fiscal deficits have been contained to levels that could be financed internally and externally without difficulty, the banking system has been strengthened, and a comfortable level of foreign exchange reserves has been secured.

Nevertheless, this constraint on fiscal and monetary behaviour has produced some undesirable side-effects, such as extensive operations on the bond market to sterilise liquidity, with the result of higher government indebtedness and less availability of financing for private investments and relatively high real interest rates.

Fortunately, the economy shows signs of emerging successfully from this stabilisation phase and in the future policies can give greater emphasis to promoting sustainable economic growth.”
Recently, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh made a startling disclosure which further reinforces the healthy state of our economy.

Addressing small and medium entrepreneurs during the eighth Annual General Meeting of the Small Business Development Finance Trust Inc. (SBDFT) the Finance Minister revealed: “I could even share with you statistics that show that, in response to this policy environment, the financial sector has been growing and people have been accessing credit increasingly. The most compelling statistics perhaps is total credit of the banking system to the private sector, which has grown from $52 billion in 2005 to $112 billion in 2010.”
According to him, recognising the need to maintain a strong financial system has, over the years, implemented the necessary policies and legislative framework to ensure that the system remains strong.
However, Dr Singh made a most pertinent observation noting that the healthy state of our economy is not only as a result of governmental policies and programmes.
“The performance of Guyana’s economy is not only a function of government’s policies but, an aggregate productive effort of all of the people of the country…the strength and stability of the economy should also be credited to every business, and citizen,” he said.
Dr. Singh added that over the years, the administration has also implemented the necessary policies and legislative framework to ensure that the country’s financial system remains strong.

In this regard, the National Assembly enacted several pieces of legislation such as, the Central Bank Act; Financial Institutions Act; Anti-money Laundering Act; Money Transfer Agencies Act and the Credit Reporting Act.

Nevertheless, it is so unfortunate that there are some in our midst, despite  factual and irrefutable evidence,who continue to repeat their mantra of “gloom and doom.” Every opportunity they get they attempt to distort reality and unleash unfair attacks on the government to satisfy their hate-mongering appetite for this government.

History has never been kind to such people, and there is no reason to believe that it will be different to these hate mongers here who pretend to be working in the interest of the development of this country.