–Country records its highest score in eight years

HISTORICALLY, the Washington-based think tank, the Wall Street Journal/Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom, has always been critical of Guyana, failing to recognise the strides made in moving the economy forward. However, the organisation recently ranked Guyana the 121st freest country out of 178 countries, with a score of 55.7, about two points higher than that of last year’s.

Over the 20-year history of the Index, Guyana has advanced its economic freedom score by 10 points. This overall increase has been achieved by enhancements in seven of the 10 economic freedoms, notably the management of public spending, freedom from corruption, and monetary freedom, the scores for which have improved by 10 points or more.
The report, which was released last month, stated that this increase reflected notable score increases in control of government spending and investment freedom.
According to the report, “Guyana slipped back into economically “repressed” status during the late 2000s, but has risen out of that category since 2012, and recorded its highest score in eight years in the 2014 Index.”
Guyana has been experiencing real growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately five percent per annum for the past eight years as a direct result of the conducive policy framework that the Government has put in place.
Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, in a recent interview, stated that economic performance in the last two years has not only seen GDP growth, which is the universally accepted measure of economic performance in a country, but all of the correlators are evident as well.
These include strong inward foreign direct investment, continued growth in credit to the private sector, stable prices, low inflation rates, low interest rates which continue to trend downwards, and other key macro-economic fundamentals remaining on a favourable trajectory.
Last month, the United Nations’ annual World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report 2014 projected that Guyana and Haiti will take the lead in economic growth for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Caribbean-based financial institution, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), also projects that Guyana and Haiti will take the lead in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is the authoritative institution for assessing a country’s economic performance, projected economic growth of six per cent for Guyana this year.

(GINA)