WASHINGTON, CMC – The World Bank chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, William Maloney, urged Guyana to ensure its newfound oil wealth benefits the entire population.
Maloney, who was fielding questions from journalists following the release of the Regional Economic Report for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), described the efforts to ensure all sectors of the country benefitted from the oil wealth “as one of the 200 million dollar questions.
“One is to ensure that this new oil wealth will get to the people who need it, and I would say in particular in the building of human capitals so that the economy can diversify over time. a
“The second is to ensure we find ways to use these revenues to build a more diversified economy. This requires a set of institutions that know how to keep the right amount of resources, the revenues offshore, the Sovereign Welfare Fund so it can maintain a competitive exchange rate.”
Maloney said there is also a need for strong institutions within the country “that can mediate the very different demands from the population and ensure that the oil resources go to where they are supposed to go.”
He said that while the World Bank is not involved in the oil sector per se, “we are consulting on issues of how to build institutions.”
In January this year, the government presented a national budget of US$5.496 billion (GUY$1.146 trillion), reflecting a 47 p
The Irfaan Ali administration said that the expansion is partially fueled by the country’s increasing oil windfall, which is projected to constitute nearly 29 percent of the budget.
Maloney told reporters that Jamaica is expected to record economic growth of two percent this year, dropping to 1.6 percent next year and the same figure for 2026.
“Jamaica continues to be incredibly impressive in its management of external debt. The consensus mechanism that they developed….several years ago, which brought the major interest groups in the economy together with the goal of managing the fiscal deficit and debt levels, has worked extremely well and generated consistently declining overall debt levels.”
Maloney said he believes it will lead to more “dynamic growth and poverty reduction” in the long term.
In February, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica is on course to lower its debt-to-GDP ratio to 74 percent by the end of March 2024, adding this will be “well below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels and the lowest in 25 years.”
The World Bank official said that in the case of Barbados, the island will record growth of 3.7 percent this year, down to 2.8 percent next year and 2.3 percent in 2026.
Maloney said the poverty levels for several Caribbean countries compare well with those elsewhere, even as he acknowledged that “getting good data on the Caribbean remains a major challenge.”
He said the data is needed to track the performances of the respective economies and labor market indicators, among other things.
The World Bank official said that Belize will record economic growth of 3.5 percent this year and decline to 2.5 percent “going forward.
“Belize is a reasonably small economy with a lovely tourism sector,” he said, indicating the need for smaller economies to diversify.
“But they are constrained by scale. So I am not exactly sure what our programs are in Belize right now,” he told reporters.
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