Economic growth and net forest loss
This week’s column continues with the exploration of the relationship between, on the one hand, Guyana’s population and real national income growth, and, on the other, its rate of net forest loss/deforestation, over similar long-term periods, (that is roughly from the early 1960s to the early 2000s). The two former variables (population and real national income growth) are usually combined and represented as real per person/per capita national income growth. In turn, Guyana’s national income has been substituted by its GDP; so that the measure utilized becomes per person/per capita GDP growth.
Regular readers of this column would be aware that, routinely, changes in real per capita/per person GDP growth are considered as the ‘standard’ measure of a developing country’s economic growth.
Based on this consideration, research on Guyana shows the estimated annual long-term annual economic growth rate for the period 1961 to 2000 is low; that is, roughly 1.06 per cent. Similarly, the annual rate of net forest loss/deforestation for the same period is also low,
