One word: WOW!!!!

Warriors prappa last up them ball yesterday.

But what about the drugs exports? Why no mention of them?

One word: WOW!!!!

Export revenues pegged at $109B

Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh

Gold and the destruction of our country

Export revenues pegged at $109B

Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh

Mid-Year report…

Guyana has earned over $100 billion in exports so far for this year, Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh has announced in his Mid-Year Report. The figure, however, reflects a 10.3 oer cent decline.

Dr Singh said overall receipts from exports fell by 10.3 per cent to US$534.2 million (G$109,884,232,785) in the first half of 2014 compared to the corresponding period in 2013.

He said too that excluding gold, total exports grew by 4.3 per cent to US$307.5 million (G$63,252,342,907) in the first half of 2014. Sugar exports returned US$34.4 million in earnings; a 26.4 per cent increase compared to the June 2013 level, attributed to an 80.3 per cent increase in export volume to 69,687 tonnes.

Rice

Rice export earnings increased to US$95.6 million, 14.9 per cent higher than at June 2013 due to a 30.7 per cent increase in export volume to 186,000 tonnes, outweighing the 12.1 percent contraction in export prices to US$514 per tonne. Timber export earnings rose to US$21.3 million, a 31.3 per cent increase due to an increase in export volume, reflecting an expansion in plywood exports.

Bauxite

Bauxite export receipts declined marginally by 2.9 per cent to US$66.9 million due mainly to a 6.4 per cent contraction in export volume to 855,877 tonnes.

In addition, other exports contracted by 10 per cent to US$89.3 million, primarily on account of a decline in fish and shrimp exports. However, the first half of 2014 also witnessed a 24.6 per cent contraction in gold exports earnings to US$226.7 million, associated with a 10.1 per cent decline in export volume to 182,411 ounces, coupled with a 16.1 per cent contraction in average export prices to US$1,243 per ounce lower imports of consumption.

Capital goods

Intermediate and capital goods led to a contraction in merchandise imports of 7.5 per cent to US$839 million. Imports of consumption goods declined by 7.2 per cent to US$186.9 million. Under the intermediate category, imports contracted by 3.3 per cent to US$476.1 million, mainly due to a decline in chemicals and consumables for capital equipment, outweighing the increase in imports of fuel and lubricants, and other intermediate goods and food for intermediate use. Imports of capital goods declined by 17.7 per cent to US$171.9 million, with some moderation in the importation of agriculture, industrial and building machinery.

Fisheries

Meanwhile, amid persistent attacks on fishermen by armed sea pirates, Dr Singh announced that there has been a significant decline in production for the first half of the year so far with no prospects of the sector achieving the target set out earlier this year.

The Minister said despite the introduction of improved management and monitoring techniques in the fishing industry, first- half production was 25.5 per cent below 2013 levels.

“Even with an improved performance in the second half, an overall decline in growth is expected and the budget target of 2.2 per cent growth has to be revised to a whole year contraction of eight per cent relative to 2013 output levels.”

Forestry

On the other hand, the forestry sector recorded robust growth of 38.1 per cent, supported by the introduction of new incentives to harvesters and sustained demand from the construction sector and furniture manufacturing sub-sector. As a consequence, the growth target has been revised upwards significantly from the budgeted 3.3 per cent to 15 per cent growth for 2014.

Mining, quarrying

The performance of the mining and quarrying sector in recent years has been significantly driven by the record performances of the gold industry and to a lesser extent that of bauxite. At the half-year, the sector had recorded a decline of 17.2 per cent in gold declarations and a three per cent decline in the contribution of bauxite.

Consequently, projected end-of-year gold declarations have been revised downwards to 450,000 ounces or a 6.5 per cent decline, while bauxite value- added production is projected to contract by 6.1 per cent.

With anticipated increased demand for quarry products in the second half of the year, the production of ‘other mining products’ is expected to rebound and return a marginally lower 5.5 per cent growth.

The overall sector performance for 2014 has been accordingly revised downwards from the budget target of 2.8 per cent growth to a contraction of 5.1 per cent.