MISCARRIAGE OF THE ECONOMY

Apr 26, 2018 Editorial, Features / Columnists

On the face of it, it seems that the government is pursuing a strategy which, at its best, is tantamount to miscarriage of the economy and at its worst, is politically incoherent. The administration seems oblivious to the fact that the economy is ailing and is in dire need of medicine to cure it and turn it around.
Since taking office three years ago in May 2015, the government has passed four budgets for a total amount of almost one trillion dollars. With each budget came the projection of a growth rate by the Minister of Finance, but all his projections have fallen short because the economy did not perform as robustly as was expected. While a 2.1 percent growth rate for 2017 was positive, it was below what was projected, and is the lowest growth rate Guyana has seen in decades.
In 2015, Minister Jordan had predicted an economic growth rate of 3.4 percent but only a 3 percent growth rate was achieved. In 2016, he forecast a growth rate of 4.4 percent but a 2.6 percent growth rate was realized. And in 2017, a more optimistic Finance Minister projected a growth rate of 3.8 percent, but the economy grew at 2.1 percent.
The Minister recently confirmed what many in the business community already knew – that the economy is in serious trouble and that it is expected to grow at less than two percent this year.
The government, particularly the Finance Ministry, has faced much criticism from the opposition for failing to do proper growth projections. Instead of accepting responsibility for the poor performance of the economy, the government has blamed its predecessor. But it is also unfortunate that the opposition is naïve enough to believe that it has some magical solution or is imbued with such wizardry that the economy would improve under a PPP government.
The time for the blame game has long passed. It is a self-destructive exercise that our politicians have nurtured, instead of trying to find real solutions to boost the economy for the sake of all of us. But make no mistake, it is the government and not the opposition that is responsible for the economic problem the country is in.
The government has been illusive for the past few years and in many instances this has been occasioned by its inability to diversify, transform and restructure the economy. Not only has the government fallen asleep, but it seems that it has become completely disengaged from the process necessary to improve the economy.
The truth is, regardless of which political party has governed the country over the last 50 years, they have inexplicably failed to diversify. The economic problems facing the country are real and will not be overcome by talking or maintaining the status quo. A consensus has to be generated and subscribed to by all stakeholders to rescue the economy and drag the country out of its quagmire.
The failure of the government to turn the economy around is as plain as night versus day. It is borrowing and spending like there is no tomorrow, with no vision on the way forward or policies being implemented to correct the situation. Then, we have the public and private sectors that are not in tune with the necessity to raise productivity levels. And we have a government that is arrogant and elitist and appears unwilling to put the concerns of the people ahead of egos and personal interests. And contrary to popular opinion, it is not only the government to be blamed. We, the people, are equally culpable.

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