Private Sector Commission (PSC) chairman, Ramesh Dookhoo says that there has been a small but noticeable deceleration of some indicators in the economy following cuts to this year’s budget by the opposition in April.
According to a release from the Government Information Agency (GINA), Dookhoo, who along with members of the private sector yesterday met President Donald Ramotar yesterday, stated that although the symptoms are not overly alarming, they are “showing up more and more every day”.
He said, ”We are already getting reports that the smaller businesses are being affected,” and he maintained that his character as a “supreme optimist“ was intact. He said, ”I believe that there will be ways forward and we have explored some of those ways forward…many of my colleagues are also very optimistic …I think we all need to put Guyana first as we all say we will do and to have the situation going on and on is perhaps going to be detrimental to us in the private sector”, Dookhoo stated.
According to GINA, the private sector convened a series of engagements with politicians including those in the government to vent their concerns about the budget cuts and their effects on the economy and the private sector.
“That will affect spending in the private sector, and spending in the economy. It is bound to affect us at some point in time. We are also concerned about the effects on the transformative projects, the hydropower and other such projects,” Dookhoo said.
According to GINA, Dookhoo said that the private sector will make diligent efforts to bring such concerns to the attention of the opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). “We do not want to sit back and allow this impasse to go on,” he stated.
In April the opposition parliamentary parties voted in favour of cuts to this year’s budget in which $21B was axed.
