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Guyana’s export earnings dipped in 2013
…Foreign Direct Investments also plummets – Dr. Singh
Guyana’s earnings last year from the items it exported, dipped by 2.8 per cent to US$1.4B according to Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh.
He made the disclosure during his budget presentation on Monday and blamed the decline in earnings on the sharp decline in gold prices along with lower export volumes of sugar, bauxite and timber.
Finance Minister
Dr. Ashni Singh
Export earnings from sugar plunged by 13.6 percent bringing in US$114.2M, due to an 18.7 per cent decline in export volume to 160,284 tonnes, outweighing the 6.3 percent increase in prices to US$713 per tonne.
Rice exports on the other hand saw receipts expanding by 22.2 percent to US$239.8M. This success was mainly attributed to an 18.2 percent increase in export volume to 394,989 tonnes, combined with a 3.4 percent increase in average export prices to US$607 per tonne.
According to the Finance Minister, gold exports amounted to US$648.5M which was a 9.5 percent decline compared to 2012.
The Finance Minister explained that this was due to a sharp decline in average realised prices to US$1,344 per ounce compared to $1,575 in 2012.
He noted, too, that bauxite exports also declined to US$134.6M, due to the 24.7 percent decline in export volume to 1,678,971 tonnes, outweighing the 18.6 percent increase in export prices to US$80 per tonne. Timber exports earnings also declined according to Dr. Singh.
He reported that timber exports dipped by 1.4 percent to US$38.5M as a result of lower export volume.
The Minister said that merchandise imports declined by 7.5 percent to US$1.8B.
“Across the categories, capital goods contracted by 9.7 percent to US$415.2M, non-fuel intermediate goods declined by 3.3 percent to US$410.1M, fuel and lubricants decreased by 9.9 percent to US$574.7M and consumption goods declined by 6.1 percent to US$437.7M.”
He said, too, that net current transfers decreased by 15.7 per cent to US$353.2M, due to lower receipts of worker remittances which declined by US$141.1M to US$328.2M.
The Minister reported too that net payment of services amounted to US$307.1M compared to US$204.6M due to a US$107.1M increase in non-factor services mainly due to higher royalties and license fees.
According to Dr. Singh the capital account recorded a lower surplus of US$314.8M compared to US$418.3M which he said was attributed to some moderation in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) concentrated mainly in the mining and quarry sectors.
Total FDI for last year amounted to US$214M, compared to US$293.7M in the previous year.
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