– report vindicates structural changes since 1988 – Finance Minister
A three-year project which began in 2007 to rebase Guyana’s National Accounts from 1988 to 2006 has been completed and compiled in a report entitled “Guyana System of National Accounts.”
The report, which benefited from technical support by the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC), was officially launched at the Pegasus Hotel yesterday by Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh during a seminar for users to understand the scope of the National Accounts.
At the launching were CARTAC’s Programme Coordinator Therese Turner-Jones, National Accounts Statistics Adviser Paul Austin, Chief Statistician of the Guyana National Bureau of Statistics (GNBS) Lennox Benjamin, and numerous representatives from the public and private sectors.
The launching marks the first national accounts report in two decades and underscores Government’s commitment to disseminating high quality data and the Bureau’s role as a catalyst for promoting the culture of statistics in Guyana.
The rebasing is also part of a regional effort recommended by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat for all statistical offices to rebase to a year no later than 2006.
Minister Singh, who preempted the launching with an announcement in Parliament at the presentation of the 2010 National Budget, considered the event a historic accomplishment of the GNBS.
“One of the immediate results of this rebasing exercise has been a revision of the size of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) estimates of market prices by an average of 62.2 percent for the period 2006 to 2009. For the year 2009, the estimate of market prices on the old base of 1988, which stood up at $255.8B, now under the rebased framework would stand at $413.1B, a 61.4 percent increase,” Minister Singh disclosed.
The Minister added that the results vindicate the fact that the economy has undergone significant structural changes since 1988. These, he said, included the economic reforms of 1989 to liberalise the economy, investments in the gold, Information Communication Technology (ICT) related services, private education and health care services, and tourism and hospitality.
Commendations were given to CARTAC for being the principal source of technical assistance from the inception of the project. Minister Singh said the Centre has a good track record in the Caribbean Region.
CARTAC is currently providing technical assistance to national accounts rebasing exercises in Eastern Caribbean countries and Suriname. CARTAC Coordinator said her organisation is pleased to be associated with the three-year project which emanated out of commitment, hard work and dedication.
“We in Guyana have directly benefitted from technical assistance provided by CARTAC from all of the functional areas in which the centre works,” Minister Singh said.
Among the many accomplishments of the completed report is its fulfillment of the commitment to improve transparency in government information, an objective for which the CARTAC Coordinator said the Guyana Government should be applauded.
“This seminar and the launching of the national accounts publication signal Guyana’s commitment to the fundamental principles of official statistics as designated by the United Nations. One of these principles calls for official statistics to be made available on an impartial basis by official statistical agencies to honour citizens’ entitlement to public information,” Jones said.
CARTAC, a donor funded agency, is one of seven regional technical assistance centres of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has an obligation to ensure that it’s technical assistance interventions result in tangible benefits for countries.
The partnership between CARTAC and the GNBS in the area of national accounts and price statistics was credited by Jones as one that yielded positive outcomes.
She advised however that a well established work programme be formulated to ensure sustainability of momentum which the new national accounts system has engendered.
The Coordinator also advised the private sector to intensify its support for the bureau’s survey initiative.
“Statistics represent the raw material for good and effective decision making, whether at the level of the individual, household, firm, industry, Government, Central Bank or external agency. National accounts statistics make the size, composition and development of an economy and its major components visible,” the CARTAC Coordinator said.