Dear Editor,
We are now in March, and the Bureau of Statistics (BoS) has not published on its website (https://statisticsguyana.gov.gy/) the inflation rate for January and February 2023. BoS is responsible for producing monthly inflation rates and its latest published figure is for December 2022. Up-to-date food inflation rates, for instance, are of particular interest. More generally, the outdated and limited data on the website may attest that the Bureau is not driven by a sense of urgency to (quoting from its mission statement) “efficiently disseminate, analyse and produce statistical information covering economic, social and environmental issues in Guyana” to allow citizens and decision makers to function effectively.
There is a larger narrative here. It is this: the government has scant interest in utilizing statistics to set targets and measure its performance in relation to living standards and quality of life of citizens. Evidently, it fails to realize that no one is fooled anymore by big-picture measures such as GDP per capita or by big numbers in big budgets. People fully realize that such numbers capture very little of their actual living experiences and daily struggles. The starkest indication of the government’s avoidance of creating and using statistics on people-centric development is its approach to poverty elimination. With large oil revenues and a small population, Guyana has one of the world’s fastest growing economies and highest per capita incomes.
But this is not a government that will talk specifically (if at all) about lifting all citizens out of poverty by a set date. The Bureau of Statistics therefore seems to be a captive of this larger mindset.
Sincerely,
Sherwood Lowe
