Businesses are being asked to provide data that will better inform investment policies since the economy has changed over the decade and a half when the last economic survey was done.
The Bureau of Statistics, supported by the Finance Minister, will be undertaking an exercise to rebase Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), said an advertisement by the Bureau.
The GDP is the measure of goods and services produced by the economy. The Bureau said it would be conducting a survey among businesses to garner the necessary data.
It was noted that because the economy has undergone significant changes in the last several years, a survey that will help to describe Guyana’s current economic profile is long overdue. The last major economic survey was done in 1991.
Businesses are being asked to participate to help the Bureau provide data, which the business community itself can use to speak with authority to policymakers. The Bureau said in the advertisement that while many persons have opinions on economic conditions and trends, it is only when actual data is available for analysis that definitive statements can be made; and the goal is to provide such data.
The data collected will be used by the public sector to formulate public policy, create public investment programmes and business assistance and research. And in the private sector the data will be useful in studying industries for possible investment purposes, determining which goods and services are produced in Guyana, lobbying for concessions such as tax breaks or tax holidays, locating business markets and concentrations of distributors or retailers, as well as evaluating new business opportunities and enhancing business-opportunity presentations.
This information is being requested under Sub-section 1 of Section 9 of the Statistics Ordinance 1965, and the revised Bureau of Statistics Act 1992.
The Bureau said it is a legal obligation, under this law, to provide data that has been requested by the Bureau and it is required to keep the information supplied in strict confidence.
Queries can be made at the National Accounts Department of the Bureau’s Brickdam and Avenue of the Republic Office.
