Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) Radhakishore Sharma is upbeat about the immediate future of the Guyanese economy despite the impact of rising oil and food prices and a high inflation rate.
Sharma noted that the local inflation rate had risen to 13.5 per cent in September last year as compared with 4.45 per cent in September 2006. “In looking at 2008, however, we expect that ongoing national projects including the construction of the Berbice and Takutu river bridges and the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project in addition to other investment activity in oil exploration should redound to the benefit of the economy in 2008.”The GBTI Chief Executive Officer’s assessment of the short-term future of the Guyana economy matched an upbeat 2007 annual report that reported earnings per share in the bank increased by 57 per cent to $19.89 and a 28 per cent rise in the bank’s share price in 2007. “From 2004 through 2007 our earnings per share has grown at an annual rate of 40 per cent despite the many challenges facing the economy.”
In his 2007 report the GBTI Chief Executive Officer noted that excess liquidity continues to be a feature of the local banking sector. At the end of October last year the country’s commercial banks held excess liquidity totalling $24.8 billion or 68 per cent above the required level.
Meanwhile, the bank’s 2007 annual report indicates that total investments declined by $642m for 2007. GBTI’s loans portfolio at the end of last year showed at $11.2bn reflecting a net growth of $1.4bn or 14.5 per cent over the previous year. New loans for last year totalled more than $3bn.
According to the bank’s Chief Executive Officer GBTI granted facilities totalling more than $100m to businesses in the pharmaceuticals, hotel, fishing and distribution sectors.
