Guyana’s rapid economic expansion saw the country recording a 62.3% growth in 2022 – placing the country amongst the fastest-growing economy globally.
This is according to Finance Minister Dr Ashni in the presentation of Budget 2023 under the theme “Improving lives today, building prosperity for tomorrow”.
In his review of the country’s economic performance over the past year, Dr Singh reported that the economy grew by 62.3% in 2022, which he said was a result of a “greater than expected” performance in the local oil and gas sector. The petroleum sector expanded by 124%.
“…At 62.3% overall, Guyana would be the fastest growing economy in the world in 2022,” the finance minister said.
On the other hand, Guyana’s non-oil economy also saw a very strong expansion of 11.5%.
“At the time of Budget 2022, it was expected that Real GDP (Gross Domestic Product) would grow by 47.5%, with the non-oil economy expected to expand by 7.7%. As the year ensued, the oil and gas sector performed even better than expected.”
“At the same time, our government’s policies continue to focus on supporting the traditional and new and emergent non-oil pillars of the economy, helping to ensure stronger and more broad-based growth than originally anticipated,” Minister Singh indicated.
Consequently, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sectors collectively increased by 11.9% last year.
The mining and quarrying sector grew by 109.7% in 2022 – a performance driven mainly by an expansion in the oil and gas and support services industry which when combined with growth in the other mining and bauxite industries, outweighs the contraction in gold mining activity.
Gold mining contracted by 2.5% last year and this stemmed from the lowered output from Small and Medium-scale producers.
The bauxite mining industry saw a 35% growth in 2022, while manganese production recorded a record 225.081 tonnes last year for the first time in the last five decades.
Meanwhile, the construction sector also expanded by 26.3% in 2022 and the manufacturing industry similarly grew by 3.9% last year. The local Services sector also expanded by 9% in 2022.
