LatinNews Daily - 2 September 2024

*Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali has said that Guyana’s GDP is estimated to have grown by 49.7% in the first half of 2024, driven by the government’s “strategic planning and prudent financial policies”. Guyana has drawn major international interest since the discovery of offshore oil in 2015, and a report recently released by the finance ministry estimates that the oil and gas industry expanded by 67.1% in the first half of the year, with total crude oil production standing at 113.5m barrels over this period, compared with 68.7m barrels in the same period of 2023. Ali also said that the non-oil economy also saw growth, with an estimated increase of 12.6%, up from 11.7% last year. According to the finance ministry report, overall GDP growth for 2024 is projected at 42.3%, with non-oil growth of 11.8%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its most recent (April) forecast is projecting Guyana’s economy will grow 33.9% in 2024, up from 33% in 2023. The report by Guyana’s finance ministry also notes that the consumer price index rose by 1.6% at the end of the first half of 2024, compared with the end of 2023, while at the end of June the 12-month inflation rate stood at 4% which it says is due to an increase in the price of food, which contributed 3.8 percentage points to the overall 12-month inflation rate.