Guyana’s economy expanded by 33 per cent in 2023 – Min. Singh

Guyana’s real gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 33 per cent in 2023 in contrast to the projected figure of 25.1 per cent in last budget.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) is an inflation-adjusted measure that reflects the value of all goods and services produced by an economy in a given year. Real GDP is expressed in base-year prices.

Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh on Monday highlighted the country’s economic performance while delivering the government’s proposed fiscal plan for 2024 in the National Assembly.

Expounding further on the country’s performance, Minister Singh highlighted that the non-oil real economy expanded by 11.7 per cent, compared to the projected 7.9 per cent in 2023. He said the expansion of the overall real economy is attributed to the exceptional growth of the oil and gas activities  whereby first oil was produced on the floating production storage and offloading, FPSO Prosperity in November.

“Additionally, growth in the non-oil economy was mainly driven by expansions in construction and services, agriculture, forestry, and fishery and manufacturing as well as in other mining and quarrying subsectors,” Dr Singh told the National Assembly. He further noted that the government’s policies continue to place emphasis on supporting the growth of traditional sectors in the economy while effectively managing the oil and gas sector.

The agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sub-sectors are estimated to have expanded by 7 per cent overall in 2023, mainly attributed to the increase across all sub-sectors, despite the impact of El Nino.

Additionally, the sugar industry grew by 28 per cent while livestock expanded by 12.7 per cent and fisheries grew by 37.8 per cent compared to a retraction in 2022.

Moreover, the oil and gas industry expanded by 45.9 per cent in 2023 with a production of 142.9 million barrels of oil.

Budget 2024 is being presented under the theme, ‘Staying the course, building prosperity for all.