THE MINISTER of Housing and Water and Acting Tourism Minister Mr. Irfaan Ali, has highlighted to the National Assembly that Guyana is growing rapidly, and that development is being manifested because of the Government’s implementation of prudent macroeconomic policies. These facts, he claims, are supported by all the key socio-economic indicators.

In his address to the National Assembly on Monday, day one of the 2014 Budget Debates, Ali lauded Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh for his stewardship in driving an economy through eight years of consecutive growth.

Despite claims from APNU’s shadow Finance Minister, Mr Carl Greenidge, that the manner in which the estimates have been formulated is inconsistent with constitutional requirements, Minister Ali declared he’d rather have an accountant spearheading eight years of economic growth than an economist making the country the poorest in the hemisphere.

He was referring to the state of Guyana’s economy under Mr Greenidge’s stewardship as Finance Minister during the PNC administration. “In 1989, we couldn’t even find the statistics,” Ali said.

Some of the measures proposed and implemented during the years of the PNC stewardship had led to a massive increase in the cost of living, and prices for imported commodities had skyrocketed at a time when Guyana was heavily reliant on those commodities, he said.

Greenidge’s 1987 budget had visited untold suffering on an already suffering population. Even the cost of leaving the country had jumped significantly, Minister Ali said.

Guyana’s economy had recorded positive economic growth of 5.2 percent in 2013, illustrating eight years of uninterrupted positive growth, which is an unprecedented achievement in Guyana’s post-Independence history, the minister declared.

The only period when comparable stellar economic performance (where Guyana experienced uninterrupted economic growth) was recorded was the period from 1992 to 1997 under the PPP’s administration.

Ali stressed the importance of noting that the economic expansion recorded over the last eight years eclipsed the growth episode during the 1990s for two important reasons:
* Firstly, the Guyanese economy expanded amidst a contracting global economy, demonstrating the resilience of the domestic economy to external shocks and efficacy of our macroeconomic management.
* And secondly, the variability of the growth rates during the last eight years was lower than the variability associated with the growth episode of the 1990s, pointing to higher quality economic growth.
Ali added that equally remarkable is the fact that the 5.2 percent economic growth posted by Guyana in 2013 is the highest in the Caribbean, according to a 2013 report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) entitled “Economic and Social Panorama of the community of Latin American and Caribbean states.”

Based on this report, Caribbean economies recorded the following growth rates for 2013: Jamaica recorded 0.1 percent; Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, Bahamas and Belize recorded 1.6 percent; St. Lucia recorded 1.1 percent; Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda recorded 1.5 percent; Dominica recorded -0.5 percent; and Barbados recorded -0.7 percent.

Only recently, the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) President commended Guyana when presenting the CDB’s Annual Report. The president remarked that Guyana is a good fiscal example for countries in the Caribbean to follow, and added that “Guyana is a good example of a country that has done some of the right things… they have come a very, very long distance in their fiscal situation, and they have been responsible in terms of addressing it.”

He further stated that, generally, there is a lot of vibrancy in the Guyanese economy. “Just by casual observation, one can see that there is a lot of construction that is taking place in the country. I like to say that, whenever I go to Guyana, you can almost see the country changing in front your eyes; and so that is just a casual indication of the extent to which economic activity is vibrant and buoyant in that country,” the CDB President concluded.

While Caribbean economies are struggling to preserve jobs, attract investments, build and maintain infrastructure, our economy has continued to perform admirably in these areas, Minister Ali declared.

He noted, however, that the main threat to our continued progress has been that the combined Opposition is working to achieve the reverse. He said, “The combined Opposition is making a concerted effort to create an environment of stagnation and suffering”, and added that one can only conclude that Mr. Greenidge and company feel at home in an unsuccessful economy.
Minister Ali said that in a comparative analysis of economic development prior to 1992, Michael Da Costa, in his study entitled “Colonial Origins, Institutions and Economic Performance in the Caribbean: Guyana and Barbados”, said the following: “…throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Guyana’s political climate was marked by continued instability, the absence of dialogue and consensus-seeking, and a further weakening of key institutions, such as the rule of law. Production of all the major commodities declined sharply; public utilities and social services barely functioned; and real wages fell sharply (by 40 percent between 1976 and 1986).

“During the 1976-88 period, real GDP per head fell by 31 percent, inflation soared eightfold, foreign exchange reserves dwindled, and Government debt rose from 31 percent of GDP to 475 percent. In 1984, real GDP fell to its lowest level since 1955, and the size of the informal economy was estimated at 40 percent of the formal economy. Toward the end of the 1980s, the country’s physical infrastructure — including the critical drainage and sea defence infrastructure — deteriorated considerably, and indicators of health and education and overall social conditions worsened.”

Minister Ali said that echoing the sentiments of DaCosta in his piece “The Political Economy of Growth: Why Guyana Fell Behind? A Growth Analysis of Post-Independence” was Dhanraj R. Singh, who also explained that between 1985 and 1992, investment also contracted. “Private investment shrunk further by 45.5 percent and public investment by 23.8 percent. Manufacturing output (was) slashed by 40 percent and sugar by 30 percent, which had widespread and devastating ripple effects across the economy, as both private and public consumption fell dramatically,” Minister Ali explained.

Minister Ali iterated that the PPP/C administration has, over the years, sought to restore the dignity of Guyanese. Dignity, he added, which was lost during the period of PNC/APNU leadership, a period when our economy and the spirit of our people were broken.

“The 2014 budget represents another prudent fiscal presentation aimed at sustaining and expanding the economic opportunities of our people. The 2014 budget represents another effort by the PPP/C administration to improve the social performance of our society, to continue the process of building a productive and prosperous nation for all Guyanese,” Minister Ali concluded.

The record-breaking 2014 Budget of $220B was presented to the National Assembly on March 24, under the theme “A better Guyana for all Guyanese”. It includes a menu of measures to benefit the average Guyanese man and woman.
By Ravin Singh