Even if one was doubtful of the glowing reports produced by the Finance Ministry, the latest assessments of the Caribbean Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and even that of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) all categorically state that Guyana’s economy has grown, is stable, and is poised to continue along this line, especially with the coming of oil.
Considering these and other compelling factors, Finance Minister Winston Jordan insists that the words of Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, particularly as it relates to painting a picture of economic gloom and doom, should always be taken with a grain of salt.
During an exclusive interview with the Guyana Standard, the minister said, “I have never fudged numbers or the state of the economy. And as a professional economist, I know there will be good and bad. But you cannot escape the fact that the economy performed well.”
Jordan added, “We expected it to because it was recovering from the 2017 low growth, albeit positive. So we expected a positive performance for 2018 and we did note that it was driven by the oil and construction activities etcetera.”
The economist reminded that the IMF team which was here a few days ago expressed that it is satisfied that the economy has grown and is stable. It was noted by the visiting IMF mission that there was 4.1 per cent GDP growth in 2018, up from 2.1 per cent in 2017. It also cited areas for improvement which Jordan says the government intends to work on.
In this regard, he pointed to the fact that the IMF called for a policy to be introduced to further constrain borrowing against or from the Natural Resource Fund. The Finance Minister noted that work in this regard is already underway with assistance being provided by the IMF as well.
