Guyana’s Central Bank has found that the country’s major productive sectors showed uneven performances for the first quarter of the year.
While on the one hand forestry showed good performances, critical industries like gold and sugar took a beating.
This is according to the Bank of Guyana’s recently released first quarter statistical bulletin.
In the bulletin, it showed that sugar experienced a major decline of 34.3 per cent, owing to the restructuring process the Guyana Sugar Corporation is undergoing.
On the other hand, the decline of rice output by 9.3 per cent was attributed to rice bug infestation and the increased costs of production.
The mining and quarrying sectors exhibited lower production. According to the bulletin, there was a 4.9 per cent decline in gold declarations.
The Bank cited particular mining companies. Troy Resources output declined by 40.4 per cent, while Guyana Goldfields showed slight increases.
One of the worst hit sectors was the bauxite industry, which contracted by 24.4 per cent in terms of production.
The Bank attributed this to industrial unrest at the Russian owned Bauxite company RUSAL.
Earlier this year, 61 workers, downed tools against RUSAL’s subsidiary, the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BGCI).
This came after they received a one per cent salary increase. Thirty other workers were subsequently dismissed.
At the time, the company also temporarily closed a section of its operations as a result of the strike.
The impasse had to be mediated and the workers were reinstated, but not before hours of downtime impacted production.
