Guyana’s foreign reserves have fallen below internationally recommended levels and according to opposition parliamentarian Irfaan Ali this is a sign that the country’s financial architecture is on the verge of imploding.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan declined to respond to Ali’s assertion and instead told the National Assembly on Friday that he would be prepared to debate the state of the economy in a few months when the proposed 2019 national budget is tabled.
The National Assembly on Thursday and Friday debated and passed bills which Minister Winston Jordan argued will modernise the local financial sector. Ali, however, argued that they can do very little to resurrect the economy.
Government, he argued, is either unwilling or incapable of solving the underperformance of key export sectors, which have contributed to shortages of foreign currency and depreciation of the exchange rate.