PPP says economy grew 15-times since it took office

Sep 27, 2011 News

The incumbent People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has used its Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud, to defend its economic policy.
Reacting to statements made by Carl Greenidge, who was Finance Minister under the PNC government, which was unseated at the elections of 1992, the Agriculture Minister said that in 2010, the Guyanese economy (at current prices) was more than fifteen times the size it was in 1991 when Greenidge was at the helm.
“What Carl Greenidge fails to admit is that the PPP/C Government has established a solid macro-economic environment. So robust is our economy that Guyana has been able to survive global food, fuel and financial crises unlike many larger economies,” Persaud said in a statement.
Persaud also took on the leader of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Maurice Odle and Greenidge, using the last three budget presentations to the National Assembly of the PNC Government which was presented Greenidge.
Persaud said that in the 1990 National Budget presentation Greenidge compared the economy to a “crushed limb” when discussing the 1989 Economic Recovery Programme (ERP).
In the 1991National Budget presentation, Persaud quoted Greenidge “…debt servicing absorbs a substantial proportion of domestic resources…as an example, in 1990, the interest payment on the domestic debt…was about $4.2B, equivalent to 38.5 per cent of Central Government expenditures.”
In the 1992 National Budget, Persaud extracted from Greenidge the comment “The state of the social and economic infrastructure constitutes a major impediment to economic growth. Although reactivating these sectors is critical to continued improvements in the economy, the magnitude and urgency of the task place an unduly heavy burden on domestic resources.”
The Agriculture Minister also quoted Greenidge as saying that two of the results of “rampant inflation”, which was occurring (in 1989-1991, the inflation rate in Guyana averaged 86.2 per cent under the PNC regime: “One of the evils of rampant inflation has been the marked upsurge in destitution and homelessness.”
Persaud said that under the PPP Government, extreme poverty has been reduced to 18.6 percent.
“In addition we have delivered positive growth over the last five and half years and we set to deliver again this year.
“This growth is a reflection of developments in the economy that can be translated into jobs and improved standards of living,” Persaud declared.
Persaud touted the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) as “the anchor of a long term strategy that combines the sustainable use of material resources of the country with new developments in ideas-based value, that is to say, the new knowledge economy.”
Persaud said that APNU and the Alliance for Change (AFC) also dismiss the construction boom, with “anecdotal evidence of a few select streets rather than the comprehensive surveys which have informed the statistics that feed into the GDP.”
He cited some examples of infrastructural development naming the “Berbice River Bridge, the East Bank Highway, the schools and hospitals, all across the country, transportation infrastructure including the East Bank Highway, the National Stadium, the miles of street lights, agriculture and tourism infrastructure, and of course, the extraordinary explosion of home construction that has given thousands of families not only somewhere to live, but the opportunity to build equity.

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