Finance Minister to lead stakeholders’ meeting on foreign exchange rate

The Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh will lead a stakeholders’ meeting with members of the private sector, the Central Bank, commercial banks and other key stakeholders on Monday to discuss the pressing issue of the foreign exchange rate.

This is according to President Dr Irfaan Ali who told a news conference on Saturday at State House that the issue will now be discussed in a holistic manner and a report will be submitted to him for further examination following the meeting.

Even though the Central Bank says there is enough foreign currency spread across the local market to satisfy demands, local businesses continue to complain of a shortage, especially the US currency.

On Saturday, President Ali reminded reporters that the foreign exchange market and the rate are no longer determined by the Government, but to a large extent by market forces of demand and supply.

“But when I reviewed the statistics from the Bank of Guyana, and Cambios and listened to the Governor of the Central Bank and the technical team, they are of the opinion, based on the data, that they have sufficient foreign currency to satisfy the existing demand, and there is continuous surveillance of this, there is a daily reporting mechanism on the clearing of the market by the central bank,” the President said.

Last month, Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo noted that foreign currency shortages in the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago have depleted foreign exchange locally.

He said the government discovered that Trinidadian businesses operating here are procuring goods for their businesses from Guyana and shipping them to Trinidad.

In so doing, they are utilsing Guyana’s foreign currency to make those payments.