New York-based stock market, NASDAQ, has listed Guyana as the fastest growing economy in the world with a projected growth rate of 16.3 percent from 2018-2021.
NASDAQ projected with a GDP size of $3.63B (2018 Rank: 160), a growth rate of 4.1 percent in 2018, and 4.6 percent in 2019, Guyana’s economy is expected to grow by 33.5 percent and 22.9 percent in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Those projections are contained in a report from the IMF, which stated that Guyana’s real GDP is expected to grow by approximately 86 per cent in 2020, almost 20 times more than the projected 4.4 percent growth for this year.
Additionally, Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 4.7 percent in 2019, the biggest growth since 2014.
The growth was fueled by the oil and gas sector investments and the performance of traditional industries.
Minister of Finance Hon. Winston Jordan made the disclosure on Wednesday at the sod-turning ceremony for the proposed Hilton Hotel at Ogle, East Coast Demerara.
“While there has been positive growth from 2015, economic growth has been cumulative since 2017, moving from 2.1 percent in that year to 3.8 percent in 2018 and to 4.7 per cent last year. The growth recorded last year was more than the projected 4.6 per cent,” the minister explained.
The former dependency on the performance of a few commodities over the years has shifted with the positive growth resulting from successes in the rice, construction and tourism industries.
“We need to recognise the performance of those sectors…it comes on the heels of positive performances despite yearly challenges … Guyana continues to grow, and except the year we had one percent growth, every year we had growth above three percent,” the finance minister said.
