Guyana says it's no longer highly indebted and poor

The Guyana government says the country has moved from a highly indebted country with a multibillion-dollar debt in 1992 to a middle-income country with five consecutive years of economic growth.

"The performance of Guyana's economy is not only a function of Government's policies but an aggregate productive effort of all of the people of the country," according to Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.

"As such, the strength and stability of the economy should also be credited to every business and citizen."

Singh said Guyana is on course to achieve the projected growth for the first half of the year as outlined in the national budget, with the economy expected to expand by 4.6 per cent.

"The most compelling statistics, perhaps, is total credit of the banking system to the private sector, which has grown GUY$52 billion in 2005 (US$255.2 million) to GUY$112 billion in 2010 (US$549.8 million)," said Singh as he addressed a meeting of the the Small Business Development Finance Trust Inc (SBDFT) in Georgetown late June.

He said the improvement was evidence of the private sector's positive response to the favourable environment created under a 'dynamic and vibrant' economy.

Singh also told the SBDFT - whose members' business successes he praised as a contributor to the economy's turnaround - that while the world has had to grapple with the effects of the global and economic crisis, Guyana has been able to weather the storm without the traumatic consequences as observed in other Caribbean countries.

"Even as I speak of legislative interventions made by our government, which has seen a steady growth of our economy, the real success story that we gather to celebrate is the success story of the individual borrowers and clients," he said.

- CMC