Dear Editor,

I am no economist or politician; just an ordinary Guyanese who is probably voicing the opinion of the public. The way the Guyana dollar is treated because of its low value is pathetic. In the colonial era a cent had value and the dollar was a fortune for a child, but now children discard our dollar. Even our thousand dollar bill or ‘towel,’ as it is called, hasn’t much value.

In the Caricom region our dollar is lost because when compared with the American dollar we are much lower than most of the other territories. How would we manage if there were one currency for Caricom?

One of the reasons why we lose so many of our skilled personnel is that our salaries and wages do not go far. We are not singular in this regard, since the world has been going through economic and financial crises over the years. Our neighbours Brazil and Suriname some time ago had low currency value but since then both of them revalued their respective currencies.

Our government ought to employ economic experts to overhaul our fiscal system so that our dollar may have better value and some respectability. To the best of my knowledge our dollar can only purchase the lowest revenue stamp denomination.

Yours faithfully,
M Clarke