Latest update March 21st, 2025 7:03 AM
Latest News
Guyana modifies GDP computations
– calculations rebased
By Leonard Gildarie
The Guyana government has announced a major improvement in the way it deals with the country’s national accounts, with a new system that now uses current market prices to calculate growth instead of figures from 22 years ago.
As a result, new figures from the rebasing, using prices from 2006, has seen the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates jumping 77% for 2006-2009.
Of huge significance, Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, said yesterday, is the fact that using data of 1988, which up to last year was being used, Guyana’s GDP in current market prices was estimated at almost $256M. Using the “current” data from the base year of 2006, the GDP is now being reflected at $413M.
The new GDP series has also revealed higher historical real growth rates and changes in sectoral composition of GDP, owing to both the change in the structure of the economy and a better accounting of the activities in all the sectors.
Government officials and invitees at the Guyana Rebased GDP Series Seminar at the Pegasus Hotel yesterday.
According to new figures, the top five industry groupings, as measured by contribution to constant prices, GDP in 2009 is now agriculture, fishing and forestry (21.4%); mining and quarrying (12.6%); wholesale and retail trade (12.4%); construction (9.8%); and public administration at 9%.
At a seminar yesterday at the Pegasus Hotel to discuss the new system, Chief Statistician of the Bureau of Statistics, Lennox Benjamin, said that using the old prices and data from 1988 clearly had its limitations, with key technical gains made in the economy not being able to be captured to reflect the true situation.
Over the years since 1988, Guyana’s economy continued to face many changes. Government entities like the Guyana Liquor Corporation, Guyana Airways Corporation, Guyana National Cooperative Bank, are now no longer around.
On the private sector landscape, Sijan Plaza, Sanata Textiles and Mohamed’s Record Bar, among others, have also disappeared.
The rebasing of the national accounts therefore has high significance to the country since it will be now dealing with a more comprehensive coverage of the national accounts and the availability of data, the lifeblood the Bureau of Statistics (BoS).
The two-year initiative to update the system has seen heavy financial and technical expertise from the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC), a regional resource based in Barbados, which provides technical assistance and training in core areas of economic and financial management at the request of its participating countries.
According to Therese Turner-Jones, CARTAC’s Programme Coordinator, Guyana has joined a number of countries in East Caribbean and Suriname to update its systems.
Noting that it will increase transparency in governmental data, the official applauded BoS and Guyana for the move, and alluded to the significance of the information in the government’s decision-making process.
However, she warned, the challenge will be that the work programme will have to be designed to ensure that initiative is sustained.
New services by the BoS will have to be introduced – services similar to what developed countries are accustomed to make proper market analysis. Issues that deal with the quality of the data, its timeliness and accuracy will all have to be confronted.
Minister Singh yesterday described the rebasing to 2006 as a major historic achievement to improve on the methods employed by Guyana to calculate and keep current its national accounts.
In addition to CARTAC, there were tremendous inputs from various agencies to help the rebasing process.
He acknowledged the shortcomings in the data currently in the possession of BoS and noted that this will be a main challenge.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
“One Guyana” is no less a national slogan than “Green Guyana”
Kaieteur News- The notion that “One Guyana” is a partisan slogan is pure poppycock. It is a desperate fiction... more
If Guyana’s President Ali is the “Zelensky of the Caribbean”, who is the Putin?
Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS, Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- In the latest... more
Weekend Cartoon
