STATISTICS and facts from the Bank of Guyana (BoG) provides a different picture from the assertions by the Alliance For Change (AFC) that the economy would see an inflation that is likely to surpass eight per cent by the end of 2022.

AFC Member, Jurethra Fernandes, expressed that view during the party’s press conference last Friday.
“We once again state our prediction that by the end of 2022, inflation will likely surpass eight per cent. This would make 2022 the single worst year of inflation in decades. This extreme rate of inflation requires immediate action to address the erosion of spending power that workers across Guyana are facing,” the Member of Parliament said as she read from the party’s prepared statement.

Fernandes reportedly based her claims on the Bureau of Statistics reporting the inflation rate from May to June 2022 at 1.7 per cent. However, the BoG has projected that the inflation rate in Guyana is anticipated to be 4.1 per cent by the end of the year from the 1.7 per cent recorded at the end of March.

Inflation rates have been increasing globally over the past two years due to challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
According to the United Nations, the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against the Russian Federation have rattled commodity markets, aggravating supply-side shocks. The conflict has directly disrupted exports of crude oil, natural gas, grains, fertiliser and metals, pushing up energy, food and commodity prices.

STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS
However, since 2020, the government has been implementing a number of measures to curb and cushion the shocks or the unavoidable price increases.
Upon assuming office in August 2020, the government soon budgeted for the distribution of $25,000 to each household across the country. The government also safeguarded utilities against increases by removing Value Added Tax (VAT) from water and electricity.

Additionally, President Dr. Irfaan Ali had announced a series of ground-breaking measures, ranging from cash grants to households in hinterland and riverine communities to the provision of free fertilisers for farmers, which are all aimed at improving the lives of citizens.

Most notable in the 2022 budget, the government allocated some $5 billion for programmes to cushion the effects of the rising cost of living.
Through this, the government has provided an additional $25,000 cash grant to every household in the riverine and hinterland communities of the country which resulted in $800 million being pumped into the economy to cushion the impacts of the rising cost of living for that demographic.

FREE FERTILISER
The government also announced a programme under which it will be purchasing and distributing, free of cost, $1 billion in fertilisers to farmers all across Guyana as a means of absorbing the rising global costs for the commodity and to prevent the costs being passed on to consumers at the market.

The government is injecting money back into the pockets of ordinary citizens via old-age pension and public assistance which were both increased, putting $2.3 billion and $432 million, respectively, into the pockets of Guyanese.

In other measures targeting construction and home ownership, interest rate for houses and buildings up to $9M was reduced to 3.8 per cent while for homes, home builders constructing homes costing $6M or less, the builders will be provided with the steel needed for construction and one sling of cement.

Homes that cost $6M to $25M, government will provide two slings of cement. These interventions are geared at not only cushioning the current cost of living that is beyond the government’s control but to empower ordinary Guyanese to improve their livelihoods and standard of living, several senior government officials have explained during their community outreaches.