–World Bank clarifies that recent fact sheet contains statistics from period of Coalition’s rule, VP Jagdeo says

POVERTY statistics from the World Bank’s fact sheet on Guyana, which were cited by Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton as an indication that “inequality and poverty have climbed”, have been updated to note that the figures at reference are from 2019, a period during which the APNU+AFC coalition was in government.

The fact sheet, which placed Guyana’s “national poverty headcount” at 48 per cent, was updated by the World Bank to include footnotes explaining that “2019 is the most recent available data” for which statistics in the report were calculated, while another footnote to the report also explains that “Guyana was re-categorised as upper-middle income in 2015,” meaning a new income classification was used to monitor poverty in the latest report.

According to the World Bank report, the national poverty headcount referred to “the share of the population living below US$5.5 a day.”

The report notes that the poverty rates were highest in the sparsely populated interior or hinterland, where communities have limited access to economic opportunities, healthcare, and public services.

The update to the fact sheet’s statistics were pointed out by Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, and Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh on Thursday.

Both officials lambasted the Opposition Leader for trying to pin the report’s statistics on the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), when it is the APNU+AFC that must answer for the country’s poor statistics in the report.

Norton cited the report copiously on Tuesday, during his weekly press conference. He said that the statistics were an indication of how “the PPP government has brought this country to the point where inequality and poverty have climbed, while the overall quality of life of citizens has dropped.”

However, Dr. Jagdeo and Dr. Singh have now reversed the script on Norton.

“What the fact sheet measured was the failure of the APNU+AFC Government in the last days. They increased poverty; they had a spending spree on things that didn’t matter, because they didn’t invest in the capital budget. [The fact sheet] was measuring the incompetence of their taxation policy; the growth in poverty under APNU+AFC,” Dr. Jagdeo argued, as he addressed the issue during a press conference at the Office of the President.

The APNU+AFC, which was in government from 2015 to 2020, was ousted after an alleged failed attempt to interfere with the 2020 General and Regional Elections. Despite being toppled by a no-confidence motion, the ‘Coalition’ managed to stay in government until 2020 through a series of manoeuvers.

Dr. Jagdeo posited, however, that the fact sheet’s statistics could be attributed to the massive job loss that took place during the APNU+AFC’s term in office, brought about by the termination of 1,972 Community Support Officers (CSO) in hinterland communities, the laying off of over 7,000 sugar workers with the closure of several sugar estates across the country, and the contraction of the mining sector due to the implementation of several burdensome taxes.

“We lost job in mining, retail trade, and forestry sector. If you say four persons in a family, that’s 120,000 people who got affected. Anyone measuring poverty at that time would’ve concluded the same thing,” Dr. Jagdeo said.
 

MAJOR PROGRESS
He said while the government is acknowledging that a lot needs to be done, major progress has been made in Guyana when compared to the years under the PNC and APNU+AFC.

“We’ve always known there is poverty; don’t get me wrong, there is poverty in Guyana,” Dr. Jagdeo said, adding: “I’m not saying there isn’t poverty, and we know that acutely. We’re the ones who established the poverty reduction strategy. If you look at those reports, you will see the progress we made from the earlier years.”

Dr. Singh, in a video message released by the Department of Public Information (DPI), also called out the Opposition Leader for misleading the Guyanese public on the true nature of the report.

“He cited statistics without bothering to find out the nature of the statistics, the background to the statistics, the source of the statistics, the manner in which they were computed, or the manner in which they should be interpreted. And, in fact, at the most basic level, without even bothering to find out the year to which the statistics related,” Dr. Singh said.

He went on to say: “He sought to misrepresent the facts to create an adverse impression about Guyana; the contemporary state of affairs in Guyana. The statistics that Mr. Norton is using to paint the negative picture of Guyana are 2019 statistics, so he’s painting a picture of Guyana under the APNU+AFC after four years of dictatorial misuse and mismanagement.”

Dr. Singh also highlighted that Norton’s inaccurate commentary on the report also failed to take into account Guyana’s reclassification as a result of the country’s per capita income going up due to the size of the economy.