News

-as presentation of Budget 2023 nears

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, January 11, 2023: Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh today held further consultations with various representatives of the Private Sector as Government prepares to present Budget 2023 in Parliament on Monday, January 16, 2023. Representatives attending today’s meeting included Mr. Ramesh Dookhoo of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Mr. Timothy Tucker, Chairman of the Finance Sub-Committee of the Institute for Private Enterprise Development (IPED) Mr. Jagdesh Haripersaud, Director/Board Member of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry Guyana, Ms. Rowena Elliott and Executive Director of the Private Sector Commission, Mr. Ian Chung. The meeting is a follow-up to the one held with President Irfaan Ali, Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo, Minister Singh and other officials at State House last week. During that engagement a number of suggestions were made for inclusion in the Budget.

Dr. Singh has been over the last several months meeting and consulting with various stakeholders including the Private Sector, Government Ministries, other agencies and Civil society listening to their concerns and receiving suggestions. Budget 2023 which will be the fourth Budget presented to Parliament by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) since its return to office in August 2020. This year’s Budget will see critical development programmes for Government being fast- tracked and many more expanded to reflect Government’s continued transformational agenda for the country which has been taking it forward at a rapid pace over the last two years and 5 months since the PPP/C’s return to office in August 2020. The PPP/C’s Budgets have all reflected its manifesto promises as well as additional initiatives that have been taking Guyana forward and transforming the country’s landscape at an extremely rapid pace as well as attracting attention on the world stage as its economy booms.

Only yesterday, the World Bank in its published report ‘the Global Economic Prospects’ projected that Guyana will be the only country in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region to record double-digit growth in 2023 with a growth rate of some 25.2 per cent, building on the 57.8 per cent expansion in 2022.

The first Budget presented by the PPP/C was an Emergency one totalling $330 Billion and was presented under the theme ‘Our Plan for Prosperity: Protecting our People in a COVID-19 Environment; Strengthening Democracy and the Rule of Law; Incentivising Economic Growth and Job Creation; and, Enhancing Welfare’. The second, in 2021 totalled 383.1 Billion and was presented under the theme ‘A Path to Recovery, Economic Dynamism, and Resilience’ while the third in 2022 totaling $552.9 Billion was unveiled under the theme “Steadfast Against All Challenges, Resolute in Building Our One Guyana’.

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, January 9, 2023: Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh today announced that Budget Day is Monday, January 16, 2023.

Dr. Singh has been over the last several months meeting and consulting with various stakeholders including the Private Sector, Government Ministries, other agencies and Civil society. Only last week, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, led by President Irfaan Ali hosted another consultative meeting at State House with representatives from several private sector and other agencies to listen to their concerns and receive suggestions for Budget 2023. These all formed part of possible inclusions as the Budget 2023 planning process continues.

As with Budget 2022, this year’s Budget is expected to see critical development programmes for Government being fast-tracked and many more expanded to reflect Government’s continued transformational agenda for the country which has been taking it forward at a rapid pace over the last two years and months since the PPP/C’s return to office in August 2020. It will be the third Budget presented since by the current administration and the second one for Dr. Singh who commenced his current tenure as Senior Finance Minister in November 2020. Prior to this, Government’s first Budget for their current term was presented in August 2020. In that first Budget Government reversed a large number of harsh taxes instituted on citizens by the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) Government.

The second Budget in 2021 was presented under the theme ‘A Path to Recovery, Economic Dynamism, and Resilience’ while the third was unveiled under the theme “Steadfast Against All Challenges, Resolute in Building Our One Guyana’. Budget 2021 comprised a number of developmental measures and also included funding for the construction of a number of housing schemes and expansion of existing ones along with investment in the revitalization of the country’s sugar industry. There were also programmes which the Government implemented in partnership with private sector bodies and other stakeholders especially with regard to the tourism, hospitality and agriculture sectors. Several relief cash grant measures were also implemented and saw thousands of citizens across the country benefitting from the relief. A number of areas had been devastated by flooding and Government also provided relief for affected persons especially those who had suffered loss of crops and livestock. The Health, infrastructure and education sectors also saw major injections in Budget 2021 as the COVID-19 Pandemic was ongoing.

Budget 2022 also saw major injections in a number of sectors including more expansion of Government’s housing drive, the infrastructure sector catapulted with an increased number of roads and bridges constructed, energy expansion and diversification, provisions for persons with disabilities, several injections toward Amerindian and Hinterland development as Government proved its commitment to bettering the lives of the indigenous people. It also saw large injections in the health, education and security sectors.

-with an expanded non-oil economy

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, January 8, 2023: Guyana’s macroeconomic context continues to be one of a booming economy, with oil production driving growth in exports, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and government revenues and expenditures in the medium term. The non-oil economy is also projected to have a ‘better-than-expected turnout of 9.6 percent for 2022 compared to 7.7 percent projected in the country’s 2022 budget’. This is according to the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB’s) quarterly (December 2022 edition) publication “Caribbean Economics” under the sub-title ‘The Headwinds-Facing the Post-Pandemic Recovery’. This recent edition of the publication examined Caribbean economies and how they have been performing during the post pandemic period while analyzing what was done by their Governments to allow for the economic results in each.

In Guyana’s case. the IDB publication highlighted that ‘in its October, 2022 World Economic Outlook (WEO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its estimates for oil production and GDP growth as a result of incorporating oil production from two additional floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels’ which resulted in higher levels of production but at the same, considering higher energy prices, led to Guyana’s main export flows and as a consequence Guyana’s volume of exported goods was projected to rise by ‘an annual average of 50 percent over 2022-2026 in contrast to the IMF’s previous estimate of 22.5 percent in its April 2022 WEO (IMF 2022b). However, the publication also noted that GDP growth was ‘expected to significantly expand in 2022 and ‘includes stronger recoveries in some ‘non-oil sectors’. The publication back this up by highlighting that the non-oil economy is also expected to have a better than expected turnout of 9.6 percent for 2022 compared to 7.7 percent projected in the country’s 2022 Budget’. It also indicated that the main drivers of growth in the non-oil economy include agriculture, services, and construction.

Recognizing the importance of a strong, diversified economic base, the President Ali-led Government in the earliest days of oil production, placed the highest level of importance on a strong non-oil economy. This is evident with Guyana’s non-oil growth in 2022 projected at over 9 percent, building on the 4.6 percent recorded in 2021 and over the medium term is forecasted above global levels.

Currently, Guyana holds portfolio responsibility for Agriculture and Food Security in CARICOM. As such, the publication pointed out that in order to strengthen food security, government had promoted the Vision 2025 by 25 policy initiative, which sought to ‘reduce extra CARICOM food imports by 25 percent by 2025. The report noted also that ‘Guyana is among the governments in the region that have been organizing investment forums to promote technological improvements in agriculture and foreign direct investment’. The report pointed out too that Guyana ‘rapidly moved from being a net importer of agricultural products and mineral fuels, representing 8 percent of GDP in 2018 and 2019, to being a net exporter of the same commodities, with a trade surplus of 16 percent of GDP in 2020 and 31 percent in 2021 with the rest of the world’.

-as Government continues to demonstrate its commitment to the principles of transparency, accountability in management of Guyana’s oil resources

Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, January 6, 2023: Senior Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh today submitted Notification of Receipts to Parliament of all petroleum revenues paid into the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) during the period 1 st October 2022 to 31 st December 2022, pursuant to Section 33 (2) of the NRF Act 2021. This notification was published in the Official Gazette on the 5 th January 2023 and demonstrates the People Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s continued commitment to the principles of transparency and accountability in the management of Guyana’s oil resources. At the end of 2022, the balance in the NRF stood at US$1.27 billion.

It would be recalled that the NRF Act 2021, came into operation on January 1, 2022, replacing the illegitimate NRF Act 2019 passed by the APNU/AFC caretaker administration. The NRF Act 2021 allows for substantial improvement in the management of the natural resource wealth of Guyana including the establishment of a Board of Directors which is responsible for reviewing and approving the policies of the Fund and monitoring its performance, thereby separating the management of the Fund from the Minister responsible for Finance. Another key amendment in the new legislation is that the Minister of Finance could face up to ten years imprisonment if he fails to disclose the receipt of any petroleum revenue received by Government in the Official Gazette within three months of receipt of such monies.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its 2022 Article IV mission to Guyana in May- June of 2022, commended the PPP/C Government on the amendments made to the NRF Act and highlighted:
“The NRF Act was strengthened recently. After a thorough review, and while restraining the spending of the oil receipts, the authorities amended the NRF Act December 2021. The recent amendments set clear ceilings on withdrawals from the Fund for budgetary spending,’

The PPP/C Government intends to continue to manage Guyana’s oil resources in a clear and transparent manner, to the benefit of present and future generations.