The country continues to do well economically in spite of the global financial crisis, President Bharrat Jagdeo has said, stating that its performance on the revenue side was encouraging.
At a press conference held yesterday, the President said that the economy had deteriorated when compared to the similar period last year as expected because of the global financial crisis. He said that nevertheless, the country was still able to maintain its revenue, and “in fact there is higher revenue for this year than last year.”
Jagdeo said the macro finances of the country are stable, unlike the case with many countries of the region and further afield. The President was unable to produce actual figures at yesterday’s press conference held at the Office of the President, but promised to make the figures available shortly.
“In Guyana’s case, we think we can cover all of our short-term gaps from the balance of payments perspective, because our budget will be fully financed.” He said there will not be an “unfinanced fiscal gap” and that the balance of payments gap will be met in the short term and medium term.
Meanwhile, the President said the country was moving ahead with several programmes it had identified as part of its budget. This includes the special housing programme for low-income earners. It is also moving to get $400 million of the $2 billion approved by a parliamentary committee to start the revolving fund.
However, he admitted that he was concerned about the large sums of money spent on the health sector, without necessarily getting the results expected. He said that money had been pumped into providing better facilities and more materials for education, and even in increasing salaries. But he said these salaries had not been increased as much as they would have liked.
The Head of State said he has asked the Health Ministry to pay keen attention to improving the quality of the service, even as he acknowledged that the government was committed to seeing development in this sector.
