Budget of $267.1B unveiled, GDP growth next year projected at 3.8%

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo (left) and other PPP/C MPs listening to the budget presentation.

Under the fourth APNU+AFC Budget styled `The Journey to the Good Life Continues’, real growth of the economy next year is targeted at 3.8%, with the non-sugar growth rate anticipated to be 4.6%. The budget itself is $267.1 billion, a 7.1 % increase over the revised Budget 2017.

The economic growth projection of 3.8% for 2017 was adjusted downward to 3.1% then 2.9%.

When he presented the 2017 budget last year, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan had projected a growth of 3.8% on the back of mining and quarrying and an expected recovery in other sectors however by mid-year, an economic growth rate of 2.2 % was achieved. Though this represented a 2% increase over the same period in 2016, the Mid-Year Report, revised downwards the overall growth to 3.1% on account of expected weak performance in the mining and quarrying sector, and the sugar and forestry industries. In presenting the 2018 budget yesterday afternoon, Jordan noted that the new projection for real growth of the economy, in 2017, is 2.9 %. Meanwhile for 2018 a 3.8% growth is once again projected.