Daily Features

– Guardedly thanking Comrade Chairperson Volda Just imagine me! I’m being briefly but heavily political today.

Introduction Today’s column carries out a commitment I made in a letter earlier this week responding to a statement by Mr.

We frequently feasted on the juicy, orange “awara,” pale nutty “korio” and oval, thin-fleshed “kokerit” fruits from far flung palm trees.

The chairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform, Ms. Volda Lawrence, has rightly been taken to task  for the statement she delivered to the Region Four District Conference of her party a week or so ago. 

By Joseph E. Stiglitz INCHEON – Just under ten years ago, the International Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress issued its report, Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn’t Add Up.

The scandal surrounding the 15,000 Cuban doctors who have been working as virtual slaves in Brazil is growing: Some of them filed a lawsuit in Miami against the Washington-based Pan American Health Organization (PAHO.)

The Minister of Public Health and chairperson of the PNCR is reported to have stated that priority would be given to party members in the award of government contracts and in the employment of persons in government.

By  Eintou Springer Eintou Springer is a Trinidad born poet, storyteller, actor and retired  Librarian with over forty years of cultural work throughout the Caribbean.

Over the next two weeks, Ministers, officials, non-governmental organisations, corporate lobbyists and protestors from around the world will assemble in Katowice, Poland.

Focus on Guyana’s National Budget 2019 represents the twenty-ninth edition of this Ram & McRae annual publication which highlights, reviews and comments on the major issues surrounding and raised in the National Budget.

Budget Speech 2019, the fourth presented by the current Administration, lasted approximately four and one half hours, testing the stamina not only of the Minister of Finance but the membership of the National Assembly and his audience.

In this section, we set out, without analysis or comments, the key takeaways from the Minister’s review of 2018 and his projections for 2019.

In this section, we summarise, review and comment on the economic and financial performance of the Government for the still incomplete 2018 year.

Targets Overall real growth is projected at 4.6% in 2019. The following graph presents the percentage of contribution to GDP at 2006 prices by various sectors:Source: Estimates of the Public Sector The primary industry groups are addressed separately below.

It is an often repeated story that a prominent businessman donated the sum of one hundred million dollars to the 2015 elections war chest of the Coalition.

While in many parts of the world theatre practitioners can live off their talents, it is not so in Guyana.

The current balance projects a surplus of $19,017 million, an increase of $1,408 million or 8% over revised 2018.

Analysis of expenditure Introduction Properly executed, the Policies and Targets are reflected in the allocation of available funds via the various Ministries and other Budget Agencies.

Widely regarded as an invention of Continental Europe, and its paternity in 1954 attributed to France, VAT is an indirect tax collected mainly by businesses but borne by consumers.

In this section we consider the measures announced by the Minister, analyse them, evaluate their impact and discuss the extent to which they provide useful economic benefits to stakeholders.