CDB tags Guyana’s 5% growth rate last year to strong performances in agriculture, gold sectors

- anticipates similar growth level this year

Strong performances by Guyana’s private sector-driven agriculture and gold mining sectors provided “significant support” for the country’s post-crisis economic recovery effort in 2011 even as other countries in the region continued to lag behind in their recovery pursuits, according to a January 31 release from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

In contrast to other member countries where, according to the release, weather-related factors and crop disease impacted negatively on their agricultural sectors, Guyana was able to capitalize on higher food prices on the international market. “Similarly, mining output generally grew in response to rising international commodity prices.”

While, according to the CDB release, the region-wide performance of the manufacturing sector “remained flat” on account of declining competitiveness and weak demand, manufacturing output expanded in Guyana, mainly reflecting the processing of sugar and rice.”

The CDB statement also named Guyana as an exception to what it said was a region-wide trend of persistence last year in “the elevated unemployment levels recorded in 2010.” Guyana, the statement said, “was an exception as strong growth in economic activity was linked to an imputed rise in employment.”

And according to the CDB statement, robust domestic economic activity and foreign financing inflows stimulated strong increases in domestic credit and an accumulation of foreign exchange assets, prompting intervention by the Bank of Guyana to mop up excess liquidity.

The CDB’s statement says that indications based on preliminary estimates indicate that 12 of the 18 BMCs registered expansions in real output. Guyana, along with Haiti achieved growth rates of above 5 per cent while Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and St Lucia, the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamai-ca and Montserrat realized more modest growth rates. Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago recorded contractions.”

The statement says that growth prospects for the region in 2012 are likely to closely mirror the global outlook, projecting growth rates of between 1-2.5 per cent in most countries in the region excluding Guyana and Haiti where growth is expected to reach around 5 per cent.