Viewpoint
The Guyana economy like most other economies follows the classification of the United Nations System of Accounts. It has four sectors within which one could find all the industries and the business units that are part of the various industry groups. The four sectors are agriculture which is coupled with forestry and fishing, manufacturing as a standalone sector, mining which is paired with quarrying, and then there is the services sector. The size of the physical contribution of each sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country is often used to classify and describe the country. Using GDP alone, Guyana should be classified as a service economy since services account for an average of 53 per cent of output while agriculture accounts for about 20 per cent. Yet, the country continues to cling to the belief that is an agricultural economy. This article seeks to examine what motivates Guyana to harbor this viewpoint about itself. The article will be presented in two parts.
