— says IMF outlook confirms country’s dominance in Western Hemisphere

GUYANA continues to lead global growth rankings, with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent regional economic outlook projecting the country as having one of the highest rates of economic expansion in the hemisphere.
This is according to Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, who was at the time speaking at the launch of the World Trade Centre Georgetown on Tuesday.
Dr Singh told the gathering that the report reaffirms Guyana’s standing and reflects the strength of the country’s economic fundamentals.
“Just last week, towards the end of last week, the International Monetary Fund released their regular update to the World Economic Outlook… and in that updated regional economic outlook, one will see that the International Monetary Fund continues to project Guyana as having amongst the highest rates of economic growth around the world and the highest in the Western Hemisphere in the immediate years ahead,” he said.
Against this backdrop, he noted that Guyana’s recent economic performance has been exceptional by global standards.
“If you look at the longer time series we have had since 2021, to date, rates of economic growth that have averaged 40 per cent per annum,” he said adding that these numbers often raise eyebrows.
“The Guyanese economy has grown at an average of nearly 40 per cent over the last four or five years, and we are projected to continue to grow at rates that will see us over this decade, over the decade from 2021 to 2030 growing at an average of about 25 per cent over the decade, per annum. By any standard, that is an extraordinary rate of economic growth without precedent worldwide,” he explained.
He highlighted that while the oil and gas sector has been the principal driver of this rapid expansion, the benefits are now being felt across all areas of the economy.
“What that has triggered is expansion in literally every other sector of the economy. Whether it is tourism and hospitality, whether it is logistics and transport, whether it is advisory services — there is more demand than we’re able to produce today, literally every single category of goods and services,” Dr Singh pointed out.
The Finance Minister made it clear that the President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali-led administration is not pursuing a narrow, resource-dependent model, but instead is focused on using oil revenues to build a diversified and globally competitive non-oil economy.
“We recognise the importance of ensuring a globally competitive non-oil economy, because we see a globally competitive non-oil economy as being at the core… of a diversified economy, and therefore lying at the core of a more resilient economy,” he added.
Dr Singh said the IMF’s latest outlook not only confirms Guyana’s continued dominance in growth projections but also validates the country’s robust underlying economic structure.
“The latest edition of the regional economic outlook, of the World Economic Outlook issued by the International Monetary Fund confirms that Guyana will continue to be at the forefront of economic growth in the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere over the next several years and also confirms the strength of the fundamentals of our economy,” he said.