–as key investments, policies pave way for sustainable, consistent growth in non-oil sector, Dr. Singh says
–mid-year non-oil growth recorded at 8.3 per cent

IN keeping with its vision to facilitate the sustainable growth of Guyana’s economy, the government has made significant investments to effectively diversify and boost the non-oil sectors in Guyana.

Evidence of this is the 8.3 per cent growth recorded in the non-oil sector during the first half of the year.

Senior Minster in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, during a recent interview with the National Communications Network (NCN), reaffirmed that the government’s plan to invest in the sectors outside the oil and gas sector is part of its strategic plan to avoid the Dutch Disease.

Dr. Singh noted that while the new projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 56 per cent GDP for 2022 is reflective of the booming oil and gas sector, the government is proud of the significant growth being recorded in the non-oil sectors.

“Very importantly, the outlook for the rest of the year also reflects a very strong picture in relation to the non-oil economy, which is extremely important for us. Because, from the standpoint of any resource-based economy, having a strong non-oil sector it’s important for the standpoint of economic diversification,” the senior minister said.

Guyana’s real GDP is estimated to have grown by 36.4 per cent in the first half of this year, driven by the petroleum, other crops, and services sectors. Additionally, despite the lingering effects of the 2021 floods limiting performance in some industries during the first half of this year, the non-oil economy grew by an estimated 8.3 per cent.

With supportive measures in place to continue increasing economic activity, overall GDP growth for 2022 is now projected at 56 per cent, and non-oil growth at 9.6 per cent.

According to the Ministry of Finance’s Mid-Year Report 2022, the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector are estimated to have expanded by 10.9 per cent in the first half of the year, driven by higher output from the other crops, forestry, and livestock industries.

Speaking directly about the growth of the agriculture sector, Minister Singh said: “We have placed strong policy emphasis on agriculture, and I’m speaking not just about traditional agriculture, sugar and rice have always been important. But we have said we would like to diversify away from the traditional crops.

“We recognise the inherent vulnerability that arises from being too heavily dependent on one or two crops, or one or two products, so we want to make sure that we diversify away so we have a widely diverse sector even within agriculture; that we have a widely diversified agricultural base.”

He related that the government is encouraging the cultivation of other crops including corn, soybean, and tropical varieties of wheat with a view to promote large scale cultivation, and is keen on promoting other crops or nontraditional crops in place of some cash crops.

The livestock industry is estimated to have grown by 4.2 per cent when compared with the first half of 2021. The production of poultry meat, beef, pork, and mutton grew by 9.2 per cent, 6.9 per cent, 18.2 per cent, and 28 per cent, respectively.

The increased poultry meat production could be attributed to the increased production of black giant chicks and the importation of black giant hatching eggs.

Notably, the government’s investment in aquaculture infrastructure, and drainage and irrigation systems yielded an almost 300 per cent increase in the production of brackish water shrimp in the first half of the year.

The forestry sector grew by an estimated 47.1 per cent in the first half of the year, largely on account of significant growth in log production. At the end of June, 203,220 cubic metres of timber products were produced, compared with 137,040 cubic metres at the end of June last year, driven by higher-than-anticipated production of logs.

ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION
“As a government, we’ve placed a lot of policy emphasis on ensuring economic diversification and so the continued strength of the non-oil economy is in fact, something that we are pleased to observe and it represents, I believe, a vindication of the emphasis that we’ve placed on ensuring economic diversification and a strong non-oil economy,” Minster Singh said.

In the first half of the year, the mining and quarrying sector is estimated to have expanded by 64.6 per cent as a result of increased output from the petroleum, bauxite, and other mining industries.

Addressing this area of growth, Dr. Singh said: “We have done a lot of work to support the mining sector. We took off the taxes on fuel, gasoline, and diesel. Diesel, of course, is a critical input into the mining industry. We revisited the tax regime, distributors’ tax, and the final tax that is applicable to the mining sector. As you know, we recently enacted legislation for these.”

He related too that the government has also been investing heavily in hinterland roads, which continue to be a major factor in the work of the extractive sectors.

Dr. Singh noted that the government specifically recognises how critical accessibility is for the interest-based industries.

“We’ve ramped up significantly our investment in hinterland roads. So, all of those measures as measures have helped to cushion the impact of otherwise adverse conditions, particularly in relation to accessibility of weather on the gold mining sector,” he said.

The bauxite industry is estimated to have expanded by 31.9 per cent in the first half of the year. At the end of June, production stood at 343,922 tonnes, compared with 291,560 tonnes in the first half of last year.

The other mining and quarrying industries are estimated to have expanded by 36.3 per cent in the first half of the year. Further, sand output, based on surveys, is estimated to have expanded by 19.8 per cent, on account of increased demand from the construction industry.

Diamond declarations, like sand, also recorded significant improvement over last year, increasing from 18,432 karats in the first half of 2021, to 49,016 metric karats this year. Also boosting growth in the other mining sector is the production of manganese for the first time in decades. At the end of the first half, 193,665 tonnes of manganese were produced, with a total of 378,000 tonnes expected by year-end.