Economy saw decline in 2016

Guyana’s economy is projected to record growth rate of 2.6 percent in 2016. This was disclosed by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan during the presentation of Budget 2017.

The government had projected a 4% at mid-year.

The decline was attributed to the reduced performance of several sectors including the forestry, rice and manufacturing sectors.

The Minister disclosed that the forestry sector saw a decline of 33.3% as a result of the scaling down of operations by Barama Company Limited. Additionally, the rice sector reduced by 12.8% from 2015 which was attributed to the pulling out of the Venezuelan market and the manufacturing sector declined 7.1% decline.

Recording a major decline is the construction sector from 10.9% to 3.2% due to the reduced government spending in the housing sector.

The performance of the sugar sector also declined.

The Minister expressed the view that the over 30% growth recorded in the mining sector will help to cushion the decline in the rice and sugar sectors.

Additional details to follow.