THE Guyana Government isn’t in the business of beating its own drum regarding its already-acknowledged place, by any measurement, as the fastest growing economy in the world.
Instead, it has consistently used the accolades to indicate it’s just the beginning of implementation of its long-term vision for Guyana that started in 2020.

The global acknowledgments of Guyana’s increasing pace of development in 2023 follows similar performances in each year since this PPP/C administration returned to the helm of the ship of state; and while it can easily be said it all has to do with oil & gas earnings, it’s also more to do with the management of the incomes from the republic’s new energy resources.
Naturally, not all are happy with Guyana’s global rankings, so some entities find unorthodox ways and means to place it lower down the ranks.

Take the most recent assessment of the Top 10 ‘fastest growing economies’ referred to in a recent report quoting International Monetary Fund (IMF) figures to skillfully lower Guyana’s ranking by putting a non-nation ahead, placing China’s Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in top place among nations of the world.

According to a June 2, 2023 article by Yash Sharma for BSEHExam.Org (Best Social Education Helper for Exams), the Top 10 ‘fastest-growing economies in the world’ by IMF measurements, are: Macao SAR [58.9 per cent] and Guyana [37.2 per cent], followed by Libya [17.5 per cent], Palau [8.7 per cent], Senegal [8.3 per cent]; Maldives [7.2 per cent]; Fiji [seven per cent]; Democratic Republic of Congo [6.3 per cent]; Côte d’Ivoire [6.2 per cent] and Rwanda [6.2 per cent].
First of all, what the report doesn’t make clear is that ‘Macao SAR’ is part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), so whatever economic miracles achieved there are part of the PRC’s overall national economic plan, as with other SARs in China.

This, therefore, removes any case for special treatment of Macao outside of acknowledging its part of China’s ongoing tradition of annual economic growth, including now, when the rest of the world is facing post-COVID Supply Chain and Ukraine economic trauma with increased food and energy prices and increased hunger.
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Secondly, when Macao is excluded, the statistics show Guyana with almost a 20-point lead ahead of the next qualifying country, with all the rest in single digits.
China is one of the earliest nations to express doubt about the accuracy of using only Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an appropriate international yardstick to measure true national economic development.

But while many other similar concerns exist and have been repeatedly punctuated at the IMF, World Bank, World Economic Forum, G-77, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other North-South or international economic gatherings and entities, it’s still the dominant measurement.

Guyana well understands the vagaries of the continuing changes in the global economic and financial climate and the need for adjustments along the way, which is why it’s been able to achieve such milestones under the leadership of President, Dr Irfaan Ali; Prime Minister Brigadier General (Ret’d) Mark Phillips; Vice-President and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo; Senior Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh and the Ministry of Finance, state planners and finance and economics analysts, etc. who’ve led the way to make it happen.|

That’s why (to quote the late superstar Tina Turner) Guyana is repeatedly rated worldwide, over time, as “Simply the Best” and “Better than all the rest…”