Whereas, it was not ‘many moons ago’ that the consistently sluggish performance of the Guyana economy had caused the country to be dubbed ‘the sick man of the Caribbean,’ nothing could be further from the truth these days, at least not in the view of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations, established for the purpose of contributing to the economic development of Latin America and the Caribbean and coordinating actions directed towards this end.
While, not unexpectedly, the UN body is projecting growth for Latin America and the Caribbean at 1.8% for the Caribbean, as a whole, this year and 2.3% for 2025, Guyana alone is forecast to experience a remarkable 29.2% growth, according to the ECLAC report; and even as Guyana continues to spread its proverbial wings as a global investment hot spot, ECLAC sees the region as a whole as being “stuck in a trap of low growth accompanied by poor investment performance and low labour productivity,” going forward.
It is no secret that the difference in the numbers is a function of the impact that Guyana’s oil finds, beginning in 2015 and the subsequent application of the country’s petro fortune to shoring up what, up to that time, had been one of the more sluggish economies in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). When account is taken of Guyana, ECLAC projects that the Caribbean will grow by 8.4% this year, though the significant number here is the stunning 29.2 anticipated growth projection for Guyana alone, according to the UN body.
According to ECLAC, what has been an extended run of low growth for Latin America and the Caribbean has been further compounded by limited domestic space for “implementing macroeconomic policies for reactivation as well as global uncertainty.”
