Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh Monday said Guyana should record another year of strong economic growth, including in the non-oil sector.
Presenting the 2024 budget, Dr. Singh said Guyana’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is pegged at 34.3% this year.
Further, the non-oil sector on its own should expand by 11.9% this year.
For context, Real GDP is an inflation-adjusted measure that reflects the value of all goods and services produced by an economy (in this case, Guyana’s economy) in a given year.
Guyana’s growth this year, as has been the case for the past several years, is largely attributed to the nascent oil and gas sector. Dr. Singh, however, pointed out that non-oil growth is linked to expected expansions in the agriculture, forestry, construction and mining sectors.
Disaggregating the figures, Dr. Singh said the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector is projected to grow by 10.4%.
The sugar sub-sector alone is expected to “accelerate its recovery” with growth of 66.1%, Dr. Singh said. The growth of this sub-sector is expected to result from increased mechanisation and value-added production.
The mining and quarrying sector is projected to expand by 43.6%. Dr. Singh explained that the government expects a recovery in gold and bauxite mining. The oil and gas sub-sector should expand by some 44.7%.
There are also favourable projects for the manufacturing (16%) and construction (23.4%) sectors.
Though these gains are expected, Dr. Singh also noted that inflation is expected to marginally increase to 2.5%.
In simple terms, inflation refers to the general increase of prices of goods and services in an economy. Managing inflation rates has been a global focus since the COVID-19 pandemic caused substantial disruptions and price increases in 2020 and thereafter.
Earlier in his presentation, Dr. Singh said inflation was at 2% at the end of 2023, lower than the inflation rate of 7.2% in 2022. Food prices, on the other hand, were at 3.8% compared to the 14.1% in prices in 2022.
