The gold and fisheries industries are holding the leading spots for strongest export earners at the end of the 2019 half-year, says the Finance Ministry.
In its Half-Year Report, which was perused by the Guyana Standard, it was revealed that for export earnings the main contributors were gold, fish and fish byproducts, and sugar, which increased by US$41.5M, US$3.4M, and US$1.8M, respectively.
Noteworthy, the report noted that gold exports by “other dealers” accounted for 52.2% of the US$411.2M earned from the export of this metal in the first half of 2019. Other dealers, it said, accounted for 44.9% of gold exports for the same period in 2018.
Furthermore, the Finance Ministry noted that receipts from rice exports declined by US$9.9M this year. While there were higher earnings from exports to the European Union and Venezuela, the Ministry said that there were no exports to the Cuban and Mexican markets in 2019.
Turning its attention to imports, the Finance Ministry noted that intermediate goods expanded by US$170.4M to US$706M, driven largely by chemicals, parts and accessories imported growing significantly on account of oil and gas activities. It further stated that there was marginal growth of 1.1%, or US$2.6M, in the imports of fuel and lubricants.
As for imported capital goods, the Ministry said that this increased substantially, by US$155.2M to US$423M, primarily attributed to a substantial expansion in mining machinery, again, supported by oil and gas activity. The Ministry noted that consumer goods, on the other hand, grew less robustly by US$2.2M to US$236.8M, on account of increases in other nondurables, other semi-durables, and other durables, which were partly offset by a decrease in the importation of food for final consumption.
