Declaring that 2021 will not be an easy year for Guyana due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, presented a grim picture of the performance in 2020 for the non-oil sectors of the Guyanese economy.

Overall economic growth was pegged at 43.5% but most of that growth was attributed to the oil sector.

“More Strikingly the non-oil economy is estimated to have contracted in 2020 by 7.3%”, Dr. Singh related during his budget presentation on Friday.

Dr. Singh said the Government will have to find a way to navigate through the pandemic while safely moving to fully open the economy. Once this is achieved, the Finance Minister said the major sectors of the economy will see exponential growth.

“In 2020, the Agriculture sector estimated to have grown by 4.1%, this improved position is largely on account for growth in rice, other crops and livestock which offset the contractions recorded in sugar, forestry and fishing. The sugar industry contracted by 3.7% with production falling to an all-time low. The forestry sector contracted by 7.1%, while the fishing sector contracted by 17.1%.” Dr. Singh told the house.

Further, the Finance Minister said several critical sectors saw growth due to oil production.

“The mining and quarrying sector is estimated to have expanded by 303.7% in 2020, the overall growth above 2019 was driven by the oil, gas and support services industry which grew by 2603.3% over the previous year given that 2020 represented the first full year of the industry’s operation.” The Finance Minister said.

In contrast, Dr. Singh said a sharper than expected decline was observed in the gold sub-sector. “The sub-sector contracted by 7.8%. The contraction in production by large scale operators overshadowed the small and medium scale miners who declared 485, 552 ounces of gold in 2020 a staggering 8.5 % higher than 2019.”

Additionally, the Finance Minister said the Bauxite industry contracted by 42.8% in 2020 while diamond and sand mining as well as quarrying saw decline.

As it relates to the manufacturing, services, and construction sectors, Dr. Singh said due to the restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, those sectors also saw a decline.

The manufacturing sector contracted by 8.6%, the construction sector contracted by 6.3% while the services sector contracted by 9.4%.

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