Govt making strategic investments to diversify economy – Ashni Singh tells IMF

…as IMF Deputy Chief recognises Guyana’s progress, economic policies

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, in Morocco for the 2023 International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group’s Meetings, has assured them that the Government remains committed to prudent economic management and making strategic investment decisions for the national good.
The 2023 IMF and World Bank Group’s Meetings, which concluded on Sunday, were being held in Marrakesh, Morocco. During a meeting on Saturday, the Finance Minister updated IMF’s Deputy Managing Director (DMD), Kenji Okamura, on the Government’s fiscal and economic policies.
Singh made it clear to the IMF that the Government is intent on ensuring Guyana is never dependent on oil and gas, but rather, is making strategic investments to ensure a successful and diversified non-oil economy.
“Our intention is not to be an economy solely dependent on oil. We are using this period to make the strategic investments that are necessary to ensure that in the medium to longer term Guyana is not an economy that is solely dependent on oil,” the Finance Minister said.
“We want to make sure that we have a growing, globally competitive non-oil economy so we are using this period to invest in things like infrastructure to improve connectivity with our neighbours, increase the economic space in which we are operating, and therefore lay the foundation for more trade.”
Reference was made of the paved road from Linden to Lethem, which will ensure Guyana is connected to Brazil. Additionally, he referenced the Corentyne bridge linking Guyana to Suriname, for which two proposals have already been made, from Dutch company Ballast Nedam and Chinese-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), to build the structure.
The Finance Minister also informed the IMF of efforts to ensure economic integration in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the push for regional food security. He also encouraged the fund to view Guyana’s economic successes in the context of history, harkening back to a time when Guyana had to undergo an Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) in the 1990s.
“We come from a time when Guyana was once one of the most heavily indebted poor countries in the world. There was a time when Guyana’s debt to GDP ratio was more than 600 percent and it took hard work to get us from where we were.”
“As a Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) with debt to GDP exceeding 600 percent and debt service to revenue exceeding 100 percent to bring us to a point where our debt to GDP ratio was about 60 percent and that is before we started producing oil,” Dr Singh explained to the IMF official.
The Minister pointed out that now, Guyana’s economy has recorded real economic growth of more than 40 percent on average per annum over the last 3 years, with medium term growth projected at more than 20 percent, on an average annually, causing the IMF Deputy Managing Director to recognise both Guyana’s strong economic performance and economic policy agenda.

Sustained policy
Minister Singh further reminded that there has been a sustained policy effort by the current People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government to “open up the economy, to transition it from essentially an economy dominated by Government and State activity to an economy that is driven by private investment, both foreign and domestic, that reflects openness, both in terms of openness to external trade and a truly open and competitive private sector economy domestically, and creating the conditions that are necessary to attract big international investors from around the world”.
Then there is the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), under which Guyana is now selling carbon credits to the world and in fact, concluded a $750 million carbon credit agreement with Hess Corporation. This made Guyana the first country in the world to certify its forests under the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), an international register that lists validated carbon credits. According to him, Guyana’s economic circumstances is an unusual one.
“Guyana’s economic circumstances and economic story are very unusual. There are very few relevant comparators for what we are achieving and what we are experiencing in terms of the economic growth and the rapid economic transition that we are going through. There are very few, if any, historic precedents for this kind of growth,” The Finance Minister further pointed out.
In its just released Regional Economic Outlook Report for the Western Hemisphere, the IMF has projected that Guyana will record a 38.4 percent real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate this year. Additionally, the country’s economic growth is expected to continue with 26.6 per cent GDP growth. The report had also indicated that Guyana is the only country in which double-digit growth is expected.