Last week I had briefly assessed the downside risks of significant interruptions to capital and remittance flows into Guyana’s economy. Because of their size and contributions to economic performance, these flows are obvious priorities for consideration in a risk assessment of the economy’s performance over the short-to-medium term. Capital inflows (both overseas development assistance, ODA and private foreign direct investment, FDI) account for a larger share of investment financing in our economy than national savings (both the private and public sectors).
In recent years remittance flows have been estimated in the region of US$300 million per annum. This sum is ten times larger than that recorded in 2000. These flows presently represent just under one-quarter of the GDP (calculated on the base of 1988 prices) and more than one-third the value of our merchandise exports. Compared to FDI flows, remittances are about 1.9 times as large, while for ODA flows they are