-concerned over reluctance of Bank of Guyana, Stats Bureau to provide reliable data
Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) President Chandradat Chintamani has told Stabroek Business that information gleaned from some of the country’s leading money transfer agencies suggest that the volume of overseas remittances for the third quarter ending in September reflected an increase over both the first and second quarters of 2009 and over any quarterly period during last year.
Chintamani told this newspaper that his information was based on discourses with the country’s two leading money transfer agencies, Western Union and Money Gram though he admitted that he had received no statistical information from the two agencies.
Asked about the availability of official figures on remittances for the third quarter of this year the GCCI President told Stabroek Business that it was thoroughly regrettable that such information did not appear to be forthcoming from the Bank of Guyana. “From a business standpoint I believe that it is absolutely important that we have information of this nature from the central bank in order to put us in a position to make informed assessments about the state of the country’s economy. Apart from the absence of information on remittances we also have a difficulty in receiving statistical information on things like the GDP and inflation rates. Important statistical information that ought to be forthcoming from agencies like the central bank and the Statistical Bureau is simply not available. The business sector relies on receiving this kind of information in a timely manner in order to do its own forecasting and projections to help inform decisions on critical matters such as employee salary increases. We live in a very competitive global economy and when this information is not there it places us at a distinct advantage compared with the private sector in other countries,” the Chamber President said.
Stabroek Business has communicated with the Bank of Guyana seeking information on remittance flows for the third quarter of this year but is yet to receive the Bank’s promised return telephone call. Checks with two money transfer entities in Georgetown yielded little information beyond confirmation that there had indeed been an increase in remittances during the last quarter.
Meanwhile Chintamani told Stabroek Business that the enactment of new money transfer legislation had now become critical in order to remove what he described as “the unfair competition” which the licensed agencies were facing. Chintamani’s concerns appear to coincide with information gleaned by Stabroek Business from some city cambios and street traders which suggest that the volume of monies being remitted to Guyana outside of the conventional money transfer system was increasing. One downtown trader told Stabroek Business earlier this week that just recently he had joined the ranks of unofficial money transfer operations. “It’s good business. If you have the contacts like family and friends in New York and Canada you can get them to collect the currency there and pay the local dollars to whoever has to get it in Guyana. The trader explained that he receives his payment instructions once weekly by e-mail which comprises a list of names, addresses and amounts to be paid over.