Finance Minister Ashni Singh says that Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton has gravely misrepresented a World Bank report on poverty in Guyana.
Norton, during a press conference this week, registered his disappointment in the current administration, claiming that little is being done to address poverty.
Norton chastised the administration, stating that as an oil-producing nation, some level of relief or fiscal solution should have already been disbursed to the population. But the Finance Minister believes that the comments made by Norton sought to soil the reputation of the government.
“In his haste to paint the Government of Guyana in a negative light, he cited poverty statistics without inquiring the nature of the statistics, the background, source, the interpretation, the manner in which it was computed, and not even to find out the year the statistics related to,” Singh noted.
He further noted that the statistics from the report were taken from research done in the year 2019, while the current Opposition was in government. Minister Singh then placed the blame at the feet of the opposition for the World Bank’s report on Poverty.
“One can scarcely wonder, that the economy was in a dismal state as it was in 2019… The statistics that Mr Norton is citing are on 2019 affairs… The World Bank has since updated its factsheet to reflect that the statistics relate to 2019.” Singh said.
The World Bank Report illustrated that “Poverty rates are highest in the sparsely populated interior or hinterland, where communities have limited access to economic opportunities.”
It further highlighted that the share of the population living below US$5.5 a day, is among the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean region at around 48%.
