Gold declarations for the first half of this year have dropped by 17.2% with export earnings from the precious mineral sliding by 25% and the decline is likely to continue for the remainder of the year, Minister of Finance Ashni Singh says.
For the past few years, gold has been a mainstay of Guyana’s economy but despite the drop in earnings for the first half of this year, the economy grew by 3.2%, according to the mid-year report on the economy released by Singh on Saturday. In his 2014 National Budget presentation in March, Singh had projected a 5.6% growth in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year but this has now been revised to 4.5%.
“Over the first six months of 2014, growth has continued to be positive and inflation has remained low. However, movements in relevant global commodity prices on both the import and export sides continue to be a source of risk to our near and longer term prospects. Notwithstand-ing the challenging external conditions, and the inevitable uncertainties arising from the