LatinNews Daily - 12 September 2023

* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a new statement following the conclusion of an Article IV visit to Guyana which states that the Guyanese economy continues to “grow very rapidly, supported by the government’s modernisation plans, including the unparalleled oil sector expansion”. Guyana has drawn major international interest since the discovery of offshore oil in 2015. The IMF statement highlights that following record real GDP growth in 2022 – 62.3%, the highest in the world – real GDP is expected to “continue to grow extremely fast in 2023 (38%)”. It notes that oil production is “ramping up with the coming on stream of a third oil field,” while growth in the non-oil sector is “supported by the implementation of a fast-paced public investment programme focused on providing transportation, housing, and flood management infrastructure, and raising human capital”. The IMF adds that in the first half of 2023 real non-oil GDP grew by 12.3% while inflation reached 7.2% at end-2022, in line with other countries in the region, and declined to 1.2% on a year-on-year basis in July 2023. It also notes that Guyana’s external current account “swung into a large surplus in 2022, of 23.8% of GDP, and another large surplus is expected in 2023”.