People suffer when public policy collides

LUCAS STOCK INDEX The Lucas Stock Index (LSI) recorded a slight gain of 0.86 per cent in the first trading period for the month of November 2012. The stocks of Banks DIH (DIH) and Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (BTI) recorded gains of 1.82 and 4.17 per cent respectively. The stocks of Demerara Bank Limited (DBL) posted a small loss of 0.36 per cent. The positive movement of the stocks this week has pushed the LSI to over 40 percentage points above the yield of the 364-day Treasury Bills.

Conflicts occur
The year is almost at an end, but there are already indications of how the country would perform in 2012. The mid-year report on the economy was encouraging even if not spectacular. Growth in the first half of the year was reported at 2.8 per cent, and a key contributor was the service sector. This sector is responsible for most of the industries in the economy and the biggest share of income of the country.  The service sector is made up of several different groups of activities and embraces almost everything of social and economic importance. The industries that are listed under the service sector include transportation, storage, communication, information, tourism, distribution, health,