Public sector employees will receive a pay increase this year, although Guyana is feeling the effects of the global financial and economic crisis in its real sector, President Bharrat Jagdeo has said.
President Jagdeo made this disclosure during an interview on Monday with the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN) in which he was focusing on the role he has been assigned as the Chairman of the regional task force, established at the recently-concluded 30th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference held in Guyana, to seek solutions to the ongoing crisis, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported yesterday.
He said that his government’s stewardship of the economy had placed Guyana in the position of riding out the crisis without much setback.
Jagdeo noted further that government had maintained spending, especially on the social services, and while other countries in the Caribbean, like Jamaica, have been forced to either cut or freeze wages, Guyanese workers can expect an increase this year, GINA reported.
However, the Head of State observed that the crisis has been affecting several CARICOM countries, generating serious social consequences.
In Jamaica, 60% of merchandise exports have been lost, Dominica was forced to take an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Antigua and Barbuda has lost over 1,000 jobs from the fallout of the Stanford debacle, which for a country of just over 100,000 people is a major setback.
And tourism and financial services, which are significant revenue earners and job providers in the Caribbean, have been severely affected by the crisis.
Moreover, Jagdeo said, remittances which are a significant contributor to several economies have slumped as Caribbean nationals in the developed world seek to cope with the economic depression in which millions of people have lost their jobs and homes.
In the meantime, the real sector in Guyana has been affected as a fall in global demand for export commodities has resulted in less revenue for the country. Bauxite companies operating here, BOSAI and RUSAL, have faced difficulties.
And some construction projects have been put on hold because the investors have been unable to raise the finances needed in this tough economic climate, GINA added.
