Economic downturn: Jordan blames ‘political instability’, Jagdeo cites incompetence
Monday, October 19 2015, Source
EXPLAINING the reasons which might have contributed to the slowdown of Guyana’s economy, Finance Minister Winston Jordan pointed to political instability, which he contends has plagued the country prior to the 2015 General and Regional Elections. “When you have political instability or a political situation that is not normal people do several things. One they hold back on their investment. You tend to hold on to your money, some capital flight takes place where people try to get out their monies just in case, so unlike a tap that you can turn on and off with ease when people make those decisions it takes a while after political stability returns for those economic decisions now to be reversed,” Minister Jordan explained.
His comment were made during a recent interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA).
However, former finance minister, president and current Leader of the Opposition, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, in a prior interview called the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government out for what he termed incompetence.
“They have not presented a coherent plan for wealth creation and job creations,” he declared in a recent interview, “I have been talking to businessmen who fear for the future…they are fearful of the slowdown of the economy and the lack of direction and incompetence of the government to focus on issues that matter to job creation and the economy,” Jagdeo said.
In 2014, the growth of the economy was recorded at 3.8 per cent. A World Bank report in April 2015 stated that, “Growth slowed down in 2014 (3.8 percent) reflecting the softening in global commodity prices – mainly gold and bauxite.”
However, the World Bank projected that the economic outlook for Guyana is broadly positive. “Growth is projected to remain strong, averaging about 4 percent per year over the medium.”
The realization of this, according to Jagdeo, is threatened by the fact that APNU+AFC has “no coherent” economic plan.
“People are saying that we are waiting,” he had stated, adding that the current Administration is apparently still in “campaign mode” which is creating problems for the economy.
Jagdeo has also called on the APNU+AFC government to recognise their obligation to deal with the reality of Guyana’s economic troubles.
The Opposition Leader maintains his contention that “the economy is slowing down” and the measures touted by APNU+AFC do not reverse this situation.
“This budget operated on the flawed assumption that you can tackle economic development by only dealing with one element of the growth equation. It is a fallacy,” he said, explaining that increase an in private investment, private consumption, government spending, and net exports equals an better Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Guyana has recorded eight consecutive years of economic growth as at 2014.
