An economy badly in need of restructuring

Head Down

 

The Guyana economy has entered the last quarter of 2014 and the local stock market continues to languish below its closing value of December 2013. The stock exchange reports market capitalization (cap) or the weighted price of the stocks of all companies in the exchange at the end of every month. And, as at the end of September, the market value of the companies on the exchange was reported to be G$155 billion. At that level, the market value of the stocks traded on the Guyana Stock Exchange (GSE) was down about four percent from the G$161 billion at which it was at the end of December last year. It means that the exchange headed into the last trading quarter with its head down and repeated the experience of other years when the index found itself starting the final quarter of the year below investors’ expectations. When measured against gross domestic