Guyana records 59.5% economic growth in 1st half of 2023

– economic growth directly linked to policies executed by PPP Govt – Pres Ali

Guyana has recorded a whopping 59.5 per cent real economic growth in the first half of 2023, driven not only by the oil and gas sector, but also the non-oil economy, which has been growing for successive years.
This is contained in the recently released Finance Ministry’s Half Year Report, which presents stats on Guyana’s economic performance for the first half of the year. The non-oil economy, according to the report, grew by 12.3 per cent. According to the report, the growth trend is expected to continue.
“The overall outlook for 2023 remains positive, despite challenges faced by the non-oil mining industries in the first six months of the year, and drier-than-usual weather conditions anticipated to limit some agricultural output in the other crops subsector in the second half.”
“Overall real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2023 is now forecasted at 28.2 percent, with a non-oil growth projection of 9.3 percent, making 2023 the third successive year of expansion in our non-oil economy,” the report said.
The report further disaggregates the growth by various sectors. For instance, the gold mining and quarrying sector is estimated to have grown by 89.9 per cent in the first half of the year, driven by increased output. The report explains that these increases outweighed the declines observed in the gold mining and bauxite mining subsectors.
In addition, agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors are estimated to have expanded by 7.6 per cent in the first half of the year. This was driven by growth in all subsectors – namely other crops, rice growing, livestock, fishing, forestry, and sugar.
In the sugar sector, growth was recorded at 30.1 per cent when compared with the first half of last year. The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), according to the report, produced 17,034 tonnes of sugar in the first crop of this year.
This is an improvement of the 13,089 tonnes recorded in the first half of 2022 and according to the report, this is because of improved weather and yields. Meanwhile, the rice sector has also grown.
“Under the assumption that GuySuCo will produce 60,858 tonnes of sugar, as projected at the time of preparing Budget 2023, the growth projection for the sector remains unchanged at 29.3 percent for 2023,” the report states.

“In the first half of the year, the rice growing industry is estimated to have grown by 3.2 percent. The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has reported production of 302,295 tonnes of rice equivalent, compared with 290,780 tonnes in the first half of last year.”
The report projects that rice production for the second crop of 2023 will be 350,225 tonnes of rice equivalent, as favourable weather conditions and better yields continue to drive expansion in the sector. According to the report, a revised growth rate of 7.4 per cent is now estimated for rice growing this year.

President Ali
During a press conference on Saturday, President Dr Irfaan Ali attributed the recorded economic growth to the policies executed by his People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government.
“This is as a direct result of policy, the metrics by the Government in the country, reigniting the traditional sectors and expanding our economic footing,” he emphasised at a press conference at State House, Georgetown on Saturday.
According to President Ali, the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors, were once ‘completely destroyed’ under the previous A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition Government.
President Ali attributed today’s increases, particularly in the agricultural sub-sectors, to continued investment in drainage and irrigation, fiscal incentives, the utilisation of technology, research and development, as well as the opening up of new lands.
“When you understand the nature of the growth of the productive sector, you will know that this growth is linked to critical competence of the economy, transportation, and logistics, food, mechanical services, machining services, drivers. So that growth would translate into the development and advancement of other sectors and areas of our country,” he noted.
When it comes to the gold and bauxite industries, President Ali emphasised that his Government will collaborate with miners to expand production and address the root causes of the sluggish production in the first quarter of this year.
The President also reaffirmed his commitment to the sugar industry. In fact, he noted that had the PPP/C Government not been in office right now, the industry would be on its knees and sugar workers on the breadline.
“When compared to the first half of 2022, the sugar industry grew by 30.1 per cent, and as you know, we are fully committed to the revival of the sugar industry, and the integration of this industry in the local economies and the regions of this country,” the Head of State told reporters.
“Those who are masquerading around as promoters and defenders of the sugar workers are masked in their banditry of destroying the industry. These are the open-masked individuals who stood in Parliament and criticised our defence of this industry and keeping it alive,” the Head of State posited. (G-8)