Guyana’s booming oil sector continues to be the supreme leader of exports based on the statistics of Central Bank for the first quarter of 2021. With respect to crude oil production, the financial institution said this increased to 11 million barrels from the Stabroek Block at the end of March 2021, as daily oil production increased significantly when compared to one year earlier. The bank said this performance was 82.8 percent higher when compared to the same period last year.
While the oil sector delivers outstanding resilience despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Central Bank was keen to note that some aspects of the non-oil company recorded poor output. In this regard, Guyana Standard observed that the forestry subsector recorded a 12.3 percent decline in production for the period under review. Also delivering an underwhelming performance was the mining and quarrying sector which recorded lower output of sand, crushed stone, bauxite, and gold. They contracted by 82.1 percent, 37.9 percent, 33.5 percent, and 17.9 percent, respectively.
Guyana Standard understands that the decline in the gold industry was on account of lower declarations by one large-scale mining company and the small and medium scale miners by 68.6 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively.
Conversely, the agriculture sector saw increased output for rice which recorded a growth rate of 79.9 percent, fish and shrimp by 9.2 percent, sugar by 0.5 percent, eggs by 0.4 percent, and poultry meat by 0.1 percent. Rice production Central Bank said soared, notwithstanding the adverse weather conditions experienced during the first crop.
Further to this, the regulator of the financial market was keen to note that the fish and shrimp subsector managed to perform favourably despite the many challenges such as piracy and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
As for sugar output, the financial institution said the increased production in the first quarter was attributed to rehabilitation works at the functioning estates, critical investments in machinery by the Guyana Sugar Corporation, and high workers’ morale during the first crop for 2021.
In the manufacturing sector, this news agency understands that increases were recorded in the production of liquid pharmaceuticals, nitrogen gas, oxygen, paints, and alcoholic beverages by 35.8 percent, 31.8 percent, 23.3 percent, 22.1 percent, and 17.5 percent, respectively. On the other hand, declines were registered in the production of acetylene, ointments, tablets, and detergents by 42.8 percent, 42.2 percent, 34.6 percent, and 26.1 percent, respectively.
Furthermore, the construction sector recorded positive performance on account of increased public and private construction. The performance in the services sector improved, albeit not to pre-pandemic levels, as the authorities commenced lifting COVID19 restrictive measures, the Central Bank stated. It said too that there was increased activity in the wholesale and retail trade; arts, entertainment and recreation; accommodation and food services; transport and storage, and financial and insurance subsectors.
While the economy is projected to record a 20.9 percent growth rate for its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) primarily driven by the oil sector, Central Bank warned in its quarterly statistical bulletin that the new variants of the coronavirus pose a threat to this outlook, as there is the possibility of another lockdown.
It said that it will continue to monitor the foregoing closely.
