Guyana on track for continued economic growth for remainder of 2021 – Finance Minister

With a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 14.5 per cent for the first half of 2021, Guyana is projected to have positive figures and continued growth for the remainder of the year despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other global issues.
“What the Mid-Year Report does is it documents the fact that COVID-19 continues to be an extremely significant source of pressure on the Guyanese economy and we’ve had to continue to grapple with COVID-19. In addition to the challenges associated with COVID-19, we had an additional, very significant shock and that was the floods of May-June 2021. Those floods were extremely devastating,” Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh stated during a recent interview.

He pointed out that there was clear defiance of these challenges, as the country was able to secure significant growth. According to the Minister, an outlook for the second half of 2021 shows continued positive growth.
“Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we anticipate continued growth and so the economy as a whole, we’re looking at our latest projections and growing in the vicinity of 20 per cent. The non-oil economy, our current projection is 3.7 per cent real growth. I will say that that itself is an extremely [positive] performance considering the impact that the floods would have had on particularly agriculture, forestry, and mining,” Dr Singh said.
He was keen to point out that Government inherited the country at a time when many sectors were failing owing to unfavourable policies which hindered investments. As such, immediate action was taken.
Dr Singh said Government has also been working to restore both domestic and international investors’ confidence.
“As a result of bad policies for five years, mismanagement of most of the productive sector, an environment that was hostile to investment and hostile to the Private Sector, the refusal to respect the no-confidence motion in the first instance and then the refusal to respect the result of the elections, by the time you got in office, the economy was in a state of free fall, it was in a state of collapse,” Minister Singh said.
He added, “Lot of the sectors were showing the very deep scars arising from five years of neglect and mismanagement. Rebuilding that really has not been an easy task. Rebuilding investor confidence in Guyana doesn’t happen automatically. Having come into office, we had to restore investor confidence in Guyana…The President moved swiftly as soon as he assumed office to engage with the Private Sector, both domestic and international.”
The Mid-Year Report is expected to be tabled by Minister Singh at the first sitting of the National Assembly after recess.
In regard to sector performance, the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries for the first half of 2021 are estimated to have contracted by 2.4 per cent, compared with a decline of 4.1 per cent for the corresponding period last year; and it was noted that this was as a result of lower output from the other crops, and the sugar, forestry and fishing industries.
The sugar industry declined by 22.4 per cent when compared to the same period in 2020. Some of the reasons indicated were a 30 per cent mortality of mature cane at Albion Estate, 10 per cent at Uitvlugt, and five per cent at Blairmont owing to the floods.
Meanwhile, the Report noted that the rice industry grew by an estimated 7.8 per cent in the first half of the year, marginally lower than the target set for the period. ‘Other crops’ declined by 7.3 per cent owing to the floods, and the livestock industry was estimated to have grown by 10.6 per cent when compared to the same period in 2020.
However, for that same period, the fishing industry contracted by an estimated 6.6 per cent and the forestry industry by 7.1 per cent.