The Ministry of Finance today announced that the economy has recorded a 4.5% growth rate in the first half of this year, which is higher than what was expected.
With the economic growth taking place in the first half, the Ministry has announced that the entire projected economic growth rate for 2018 has been revised upwards to 3.7%.
According to preliminary data released by the Finance Ministry, the growth during the first half was more broad based than the previous year.
Robust performances have been recorded in agriculture, fishing and forestry at a rate of 3.4%.
The services sector has seen half year growth of 8.2% and construction saw a 13.4% increase.
“The significant increase in the construction sector was evidenced by higher building imports by 24.7 percent, supported by the increased pace of execution of the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP), which rose by 3.9 percentage points above the previous half year”, the Ministry said.
Guyana’s Exchange rate remains stable at $212.7 to the US dollar with the official exchange rate of 208.5 recorded by Bank of Guyana.
Inflation remains subdued at 1.3% while Public debt levels are unchanged and sustainable.
However, the Ministry found that rising commodity prices, climate change and turbulent international trade relationships remain threats to Guyanese economy.
The full mid-year report will be released this afternoon on the Finance Ministry’s website.
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