PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar yesterday at a news conference expressed satisfaction over the 3.2 per cent economic growth in the first half of 2014 and he contends that this success “speaks volumes” about good governance.

“What I want to emphasise is the fact that our economic growth, in the circumstances I would say, has been satisfactory – the 3.2 per cent growth when you take into consideration, the international environment at which we operate in,” he said.
The President added that Guyana’s economy is currently much more “resilient”, particularly given that the entire economy will not be in crisis if any one area faces trouble.
“That it is now far more resilient and more broad-based and in that way is growing stronger over the years,” he noted.
According to him, this is a laudable achievement especially given the global conditions that prevails in economies in North America and Europe.
“We already are hearing that Europe seems to be again, going through some difficulties, and North America, their recovery is far slower than was expected. So with that one factor, I would say that our progress has been satisfactory,” he said.
The Head of State highlighted too that Guyana’s progress to date is more impressive, considering the “lack of cooperation” and the current political atmosphere.
He said: “Internally, with the lack of cooperation that we’ve been having and the kind of atmosphere that the Opposition seems to want to create, the kind of attitude seems to be totally anti-developmental…I would say from that point of view, our performance has been very good and it has shown or demonstrated that our management of the economy has been to achieve this with all the circumstances I spoke about I think that speaks volumes about good governance.”
The President also pointed to the improvement in Guyana’s debt.
“An improvement in our debt situation, our foreign debt has come down in 2014 by one per cent and our domestic debt too has come down by some 11.8 per cent compared to the same period in the first half of last year, if you measure it from that point of view,” the President said.
He reiterated that Guyana’s economic progress is commendable.
The growth figures were released last Saturday by Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, who stated that despite the challenges facing global and regional economies, as well as the new political situation locally, Guyana has been able to record economic growth.
Of the 3.2 percent growth, non-sugar Gross Domestic Product grew by 2 percent, while the local economy is now projected to grow by 4.5 percent in the full year 2014, with non-sugar growth now projected at 3.6 percent. According to the mid-year economic report, the rice industry continues to achieve an unprecedented production boom, with production in the first crop of 312,283 tonnes, 18.3 percent over last year’s record high first crop production of 263,868 tonnes.
Sugar production in the first crop of 79,995 tonnes was 66.5 percent above the 2013 level, while the forestry sector recorded robust growth of 38.1 percent, supported by the introduction of new incentives to harvesters.
However gold declaration contracted by 17.2 percent at the half year.
The manufacturing output grew by 11.2 percent driven by increased levels of production for sugar and rice, with the construction sector recording an extremely strong 16.8 percent growth reflecting both public and private sector activity.
The wholesale and retail, information and communication, and financial and insurance activities recorded growth of 6 percent, 3.5 percent and 2 percent respectively.
Guyana’s overall balance of payments deficit improved to US$93 million, compared to US$145.6 million at half year 2013, excluding gold, while total exports grew by 4.3 percent to US$307.5 million in the first half of 2014.
Despite the many challenges, sugar exports returned US$34.4 million in earnings, a 26.4 percent increase, while rice export earnings increased to US$95.6 million, 14.9 percent higher than at June 2013. Timber export earnings rose to US$21.3 million, a 31.3 percent increase, as gold exports earnings contracted by 24.6 percent to US$226.7 million.
Further, net domestic credit by the banking system to the private sector grew by 2.9 percent.
Credit growth was driven by the mining, construction and engineering, and real estate sectors, which expanded by 10.3 percent, 7.6 percent, and 7.5 percent, respectively.

(By Ravin Singh)