People should not be fooled by 5% economic growth – Granger

By Kurt Campbell

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Opposition Leader David Granger says while he does not dispute that Guyana might have achieved an almost five percent growth in the economy, there still remains a wide income gap which the Administration should seek to reduce.

Government had announced that the economy has grown by almost five present in 2013 resulting from sound macro- economic policies and increased foreign direct investment.

During the last decade, Guyana’s strong macroeconomic performance has contributed to a reduction in public debt levels and sustained poverty reduction.

The economy has experienced seven years of uninterrupted growth averaging about 4 percent annually according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose Executive Board recently concluded the Article IV consultation1 with Guyana.

But despite these pronouncements by the Government and international bodies, Granger during his party’s weekly press briefing on Friday (December 20) said the figure represents jobless growth.

“I don’t doubt that the cake has increased but are the slices going to the poor people?” he asked.

The Opposition Leader told reporters that there still remains a large income gap locally and a lack of equity, resulting in the poorer classes of people not benefiting from the growth the economy has achieved.

He said there still remain concerns surrounding what he said was a degrading health and education system.

“People must not be fooled by the five percent growth” Granger implored. The Opposition Leader called on the Government to work on closing the income gap which he says exist and better the life of all Guyanese.

Meanwhile, Opposition Member of Parliament Basil Williams support the Leader’s claim that income distribution is unbalanced.

He said the announcement of a five percent growth is deceptive in several ways, because it can still mean that the per capita income has no increased.