By Jomo Paul
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Two former government ministers are of the view that Guyana’s economy is on a steep decline into recession with the new APNU+AFC government at the helm of Guyana’s woes.
Irfaan Ali and Robeson Benn, neither of whom are economists, made the pronouncement at a press conference on Thursday June 02, where they detailed several issues plaguing Guyana’s economy at the moment.
According to Benn, the absence of a budget that would point to the policy direction of the new government has effectively stilled business, noting that many contracts are now on pause because of this important aspect of governance.
“We have identified and we are being told of a marked slowdown in economic activity in the country and that it appears that the country – its economy is sliding into recession,” Benn told reporters.
It should be noted that there must be at least nine months of negative growth before a country can declare that it is in recession.
The Former Public Works Minister indicated that there is also “slowdowns” in several other sectors of the economy which would lend to the overarching theory of economic stagnation.
“The activities at the bank seem to be cut in half…there is reduced activity in the time industry, in the quarrying industry there is no offtake of stone, there appears to be not enough activity in terms of normal commercial activity,” he stated.
Benn is also accusing the government of a witch hunt of PPP/C supporters which he claims has a direct nexus to the current economic sloth in Guyana.
“We are starting to see the impact of what is now amounting to misadventure in public office in the case of the new government with respect to activities and removal of key operatives in the government,” Benn noted adding “we want to warn and to note that the well fare and well-being of the Guyanese people is the primary concern….desist from taking actions which will impair and undermine the economy.”
Meanwhile, Former Trade, Industry and Commerce Minister Ali noted that already he has received complaints from members of the private sector and general citizenry about the economic situation in Guyana.
“Citizens have already called expressing tremendous fear…we do not want to see any further loss of jobs, we do not want to see our economy going backwards, we do not want to see any downward spiral,” Ali stated.
The Former Minister is urging that immediate steps be taken to address the issues of the economy and restore investor confidence.
owen jerriho: I now see what your problem is . You read and understand and swallow what you read hook, line and sinker. But what you should do is to dissect, analyze and determine what is fact from what is opinion or even propaganda. In other words, read critically, then hardly anybody will be able to make a fool of you as someone is apparently doing now. Let me illustrate a bit: If forty people like you and some of the other professional bloggers shout twenty four hours a day , every day for seven years,” Jagdeo is a thief, he thief from Hamilton Green ! ; Jagdeo is a thief, he thief from Hamilton Green! ” Does that make Jagdeo a thief? Absolutely not! You have to get the facts e.g Is Jagdeo in illegal possession of anything that belongs to Hamilton Green? If so. he should be charged and tried before the courts. And if he is found guilty you can declare for the rest of your life that Jagdeo is indeed a thief. Otherwise you are only making yourself a fool or a tool of some dishonest propagandist[s]. On the flip side it may be very well be true that it is Hamilton Green who stole from Jagdeo. So Owen, try and think for yourself when you are reading any newspaper.
Where do you get your facts and news from? Unless you have misunderstood what you have been reading so far and cannot comprehend, I suggest you read other medias besides the Guyanese times and mirror. It would do you some good. Oh! You can read the chronicle, listen to NCN etc and get a balance dose of free and fear news of the country even the PPPC. Isn’t that refreshing for a change after 23 years.
Sly———-the name suits you first I do not like persons like you that does not have a consensus of what goes on when a new regime takes over. The ppp are the ones that Had the countries economy in a recession with all the pilfering, favoring,square pegs, a nuncomposmentis for president in jagdeo and ramatur people like those cripples an economy what they were most concerned with was drugs even you would know of that being in power for less than two months cannot give a determination of a stagnant economy it takes much longer benn and ale are not the best of characters to speak on behalf of the opposition so get your facts together my advice to you is to zip it up and let the new government run the country In the end you and your cohorts will see what shape the country would be in.
I think the real reasons for a slow in business is because we are still in the transition phase. The other side of the coin is that many are hoping the new government provides much relief in terms of taxes so they are putting off purchases. Especially those large purchases like cars and houses. People are hoping that the duties on cars would be reduced hence they prefer to wait rather than rush and purchase only to miss the golden opportunity of lower vehicle duty. Also, hoping that the costs of house lots and house lots would be significantly lower under the new government many are eagerly awaiting this. As for the other everyday shopping, they are continuing as per normal. Benn and Irfan are in for a rude awakening come this Christmas season. They will see how Guyanese will spend like crazy when they get their year end bonuses.
Did you read ” It should be noted that there must be at least nine months of negative growth before a country can declare that it is in recession.The Former Public Works Minister indicated that there is also “slowdowns” in several other sectors of the economy which would lend to the overarching theory of economic stagnation”.
This Govt. is incompetent and wasteful. With all the resources at their disposal they are yet to unearth not even one instance of corruption they and their sycopants in the media have been shouting about from their rooftops over the years . They are using all the taxpayers money to create unnecessary audits, commissions of enquiry, new ministries , a host of advisors , inaugurations, purchase of fancy vehicles ,fancying up their new places of abode and the list goes on ad infinitum. In all my eighty years of existence I have never heard of any Govt. in any part of the world starting their term with such massive squandermania. Only time will tell if we ‘ll have a plan to rescue Guyana from their wastefulness. But at the moment things don’t look bright. I’ll end by quoting from John Ploughman who said,”What some people saved by the thimbleful ,others throw away by the shovelful”
That’s right! If they were truly concerned about the economy why didn’t they fix it? They sat on their laurels for over two decades without trying to make the country a better place to grow the economy and increase the standard of living for all Guyanese. Now that they are out, they have all types of predictions and suggestions.
Give me a break!
These are the people who stole from every ministry. Scam off the top of contractors, Who left the bank accounts of the rice, sugar, gold, NIS (you name it, they emptied it) etc, yet, having the nerve to sit stating the country is heading for a fall. These people have no shame. With the way they were running the country for sure it would’ve been or may i say was bankrupt. Happened so, we have just found out from the new government that the pervious government has left nothing in the coffer. The country is saved by the new government for at least we know what we have got to work with, nothing. What a bunch of incompetent idiots.
Sure these former government representative will say that the country is heading for an economic downturn leading to recession because they know that they stole the money, bankrupt many prime sources of Guyana wealth and now the current government has to replace and pay billions of dollars owed to workers and other contracts.
What a shame the PPP left the country on a downward spiral!!!! Thanks to the new APNU/AFC they are trying to bring back the prosperity of Guyana.
Guyana’s economy was in a recession from the day it attained independence it improved under Desmond Hoyte and went back after the PPP won in 92. As for the man with the pool house, don’t you think if you sold those Ill gotten gains you acquired overnight and refund tax payers the economy might be better off?
Leave them alone ppl, the circus is theirs to savour
I think they are referring to illict business not flourishing. they not getting draw backs from them projects they had lined up, they and they cronies suffering. all those ‘fake’ business going under.
Having read this article, i haven’t come across anything attributed to both former minister where they “preached doom and gloom for the economy “.
Inews, your headline is quite misleading. What both ministers did, according to your report, was just airing their observations with the downward slide of the economy.
As for the Observer, one does not have to be a rocket scientist or an economist to see what the ordinary working people see on a daily basis; nothing is happening, no big construction, many workers have been laid off by big firms. It is rather unfortunate that YOU cannot see that
The former ministers clearly stated that they didn’t want to see the economy going into recession or going backwards. Its the ordinary working people who feel the squeeze.
Observer, you have no shame/ conscience; you are setting the scenario by asking the people to be prepared for bla bla. In essence you are the one who is preaching doom and gloom
How ridiculous! The PPP/C was in government for TWENTY THREE YEARS, and these two EX-Ministers are declaring that after less than two months the Coalition is making the Economy fail? THIS is the PPP/C propaganda which I just spoke about – and it will be relentless over the next five years. So the Coalition and the Guyanese People had better be prepared for all sorts of half-truths and out-right lies coming from these people. It is in their DNA and this is how they will operate. It will be an occupational hazard for the Coalition government.
Depression is characterized as two quarters of zero or below economic growth. The new government has not being in office for one quarter but the PPP is aware they brought on a depression. This is not being an opposition. People should be jailed for deliberate lying on issue of national interest to spread fear and whip up political turmoil.
What is the facts is; drug money is not in the economy as it was before and the under ground economy which was funded and encouraged by the PPP was dried up. So the PPP is complaining. Their clientele interest is not being considered.
Those secret government accounts were used for that economy and to clean up drug monies. So the drying up of that market is good for Guyana.