Guyana records economic decline

Last Updated on Monday, 28 November 2016, 15:59 by Denis Chabrol

Guyana’s economy  will record a 2.6 percent growth  in 2016 due to a decline in some prices and lower growth in several sectors, Finance Minister Winston Jordan announced on Monday.

Delivering the 2017 National Budget, he told the House that the economy contracted from a projected 4.4 percent to a mid-year 2 percent and a further overall decline to 2.6 percent.

Jordan said that was due to a drop in rice and sugar production and a 3.2 percent  construction largely to a fall in housing construction and a slow public sector investment programme (PSIP).

The Finance Minister said the downsizing of Barama Company Limited, Demerara Timbers Limited and structural changes in the sugar industry all conspired to register a slump in economic production.

There was a 5.1 percent and 18.1 percent reduced production in poultry and sugar respectively.

More later…