Guyana to record world’s 4th highest growth rate this year

Guyana to record world’s 4th highest growth rate this year — IMF

May 09, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – With a projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 16.4 percent, Guyana is among the top countries in the world to record increased growth rates, the fourth highest globally for the year.
This is according to projections released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its recent World Economic Outlook report for 2021.
According to the IMF’s report, Guyana’s growth rate will only be trumped by the Maldives set to record growth at 18.9 percent, the autonomous Chinese region of Macao SAR at 61 percent and Libya set to see growth at 131 percent this year.
While global growth is projected at six percent in 2021, moderating to 4.4 percent in 2022, Guyana is expected to see its prospects in the coming year, take another uptick to grow at a projected 46.5 percent.
Guyana last year, according to the IMF secured GDP growth rate at 43.5 percent, an exponential increase over the previous year—2019—which saw the country’s growth rate being realised at 5.4 percent.
Neighbouring Suriname, according to the IMF is projected to grow by less than a percent, projected at 0.7 percent with a projected marginal increase to 1.5 percent growth in 2022.
Venezuela, according to the IMF, will see its economy contract by 30 percent this year.
In the region, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia are both set to record a 10 percent growth this year, while St. Vincent and the Grenadines—recently ravaged by the Soufriere volcanic eruption—will record negative growth at minus 0.7 percent but will rebound the following year to achieve an almost five percent growth.
Neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago is also projected to realise growth of 2.1 percent for the year, up from the negative 7.8 percent contraction last year.
Latin America and the Caribbean is projected to grow generally at 4.6 percent this year, and will slow to 3.1 percent next year.
The upward revision for global growth, according to the IMF, reflects additional fiscal support in a few large economies, the anticipated vaccine-powered recovery in the second half of 2021, and continued adaptation of economic activity to subdued mobility.
It was noted however that high uncertainty surrounds “this outlook, related to the path of the pandemic, the effectiveness of policy support to provide a bridge to vaccine-powered normalisation, and the evolution of financial conditions.”
The IMF said nonetheless that global prospects remain highly uncertain one year into the pandemic, since new virus mutations and the accumulating human toll raise concerns, “even as growing vaccine coverage lifts sentiment.”
It was noted that economic recoveries are diverging across countries and sectors, reflecting variation in pandemic-induced disruptions and the extent of policy support.
“The outlook depends not just on the outcome of the battle between the virus and vaccines—it also hinges on how effectively economic policies deployed under high uncertainty can limit lasting damage from this unprecedented crisis.”

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