Declaring that the first half of this year has not been easy for the country, President Irfaan Ali believes the Government has been able to tame inflation and stabilize prices.

In a recorded interview just before heading out to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Irfaan Ali said his Government has had to manage the economy in light of the global and local context. 

He said on the global scale, Guyana was forced to deal with transport and logistical disruptions as a result of conflict, as well as importation of refined products.

Locally, he noted, the climate conditions have impacted the productive sector, noting that longer rainfalls earlier this year and persistent drought in the latter part of the year have been causing some issues.

“And to manage this global challenge, manage the local challenge that we have and tame inflation and keep prices at the level that we have kept it, speaks volumes about our management of our economy as well as the type of policies and programmes that we are implementing to safeguard the population against price shocks,” the President said.

As it relates to the price of food, the President believes that much more could be done to address that issue.

According to him, the farmers market has seen some some impact on prices, but admits that the initiative needs to be more structured.

He said the global shocks have impacted the private and public sectors in Guyana.

“While our economy is growing at a rapid pace, we import a lot of what we consume still, we still rely in imported refined products to drive this expansion. The entire trade arrangement and trade system have been uprooted globally; we see more countries moving towards nationalistic actions to protect their own economy. We see the challenge of global conflict affecting su0pply chain, disrupting transporting and logistics route, uprooting the maritime transportation and aviation sector, driving cost and inflation up globally,” the President said.

Questioned about further relief measures, President Ali noted that the Government will continue to absorb the cost of water and energy, which will not be passed on to consumers.

“We know that there is a segment of the population that require specific help based on vulnerability and we have done the survey and we understand that the greatest help is among the highly vulnerable that requires social housing and we have launched a massive social housing programme  that would see the government investing in social housing for those persons. So, you would have thousands of Guyanese families who face extreme vulnerability that would be supported by the social housing programme,” the President noted.

The President said while more revenues are coming in from oil and gas, greater subsidies were required to support various other sectors.

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