Guyana recorded 43.6% economic growth rate in 2024; Non-oil sector grew by 13.1%

Guyana recorded 43.6% economic growth rate in 2024; Non-oil sector grew by 13.1%

Delivering the 2025 National Budget under the theme: “A Secure, Prosperous and Sustainable Guyana”, Minister responsible for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh, painted a bright picture of the country’s economic performance and prospects. He boasted that Guyana’s economy recorded a record setting 43.6% overall growth rate last year, with the non-oil economy recording 13.1% in growth.

In his budget presentation, the Finance Minister noted that while Guyana continues to cushion the shocks from global issues, the country’s economy has been performing relatively well.

“The growth in the overall economy reflects continued strong expansion in oil output while in the non-oil economy is driven primarily by increases in rice, other crops and bauxite production along with expansion in other mining and quarrying as well as in the construction and services sectors,” Dr. Singh said.

He said the economic growth highlights Guyana’s emergence as a key player in the global market.

Sectoral growth

The Minister announced that the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry sectors grew by 11% last year, with that performance being mainly attributed to the performance in rice production, other crops and livestock.

The sugar sub-sector saw a decline in production by 21.8% in 2024, marking one of the highest contractions in the sector in recent history with the GuySuCo producing 47,103 tonnes of sugar.

Dr. Singh blamed the poor performance in the sugar sector on weather patterns such as El Nino, and he said the problem was compounded by labour shortages across the industry throughout the year.

The rice sector grew by 9.3% last year, while the other crops sub-sector also recorded growth of 10.9% in 2024.

Last year the forestry sub-sector increased by 4.6%, while the livestock industry expanded by 24.6% and the fishing industry grew by 1%.

Further, the Finance Minister noted, that the mining and quarrying sectors expanded by 55.9% with the oil and gas sector recording 57.7% in growth.

The bauxite sector saw growth by 48.4%, with the other mining sub-sectors comprising of sand, stone, diamonds and manganese growing by 50.5%.

“Despite facing tremendous challenges in the first half of 2024, the gold mining industry turned around to record growth of 0.5% last year. Total gold declaration amount to 434,067 ounces. Declaration by the single largest operations at Aurora grew by 32.2% to 144,593 ounces  and the Guyana Gold purchases grew by 53.7%,” the Finance Minister noted.

Dr. Singh said the country’s services sector grew by 18.5%, while the manufacturing sector saw an increase by 1.8%. 

Meanwhile, real estate and mortgages increased by 20.3% while other lending to households saw an increase by 20.5%.

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