| Guyana is offering no apologies for intervening in the price of fuel, thus providing much needed relief for consumers.This is according to Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh who, during the closing of last week’s budget debates 2009, stated that the administration will not abandon its ability to assist Guyanese for the purposes of increasing a score in the Index of Economic Freedom report.Singh was at the time responding to measures stated in the report, which ranked Guyana low because of several policies.According to Singh,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, 10 points were deducted from Guyana’s score because of government’s influences in market prices through the regulation of state-owned utilities and enterprises.“We have no apology for intervening in the market for fuel to ensure that the people of Guyana could continue to benefit from affordable fuel.”The Economic report, the Finance Minister added, stated that Guyana’s overall score is 0.4 points lower than the previous year because improvements in four of the ten economic freedoms were offset by a large decline in the government size score.The report stated that the biggest barrier to development in Guyana is Guyana’s oversize government with expenditures exceeding half of the Gross Domestic Product.“Total government expenditures, including Consumption and Transfer payments, are high and Guyana has been constantly increasing social spending contributing to persistent fiscal deficit,” Dr Singh said as he quoted from the report.For Guyana to gain points on this index, he added, it will mean that Government will have to cut critical social programmes, and as such it will not head down that road.The report for the United States of America, which attracted similar language to Guyana, he noted, stated that total government expenditure including Consumption and Transfer payments are high.Quoting the report on the United States, “Government spending has been rising and in the most recent years equalled 36.7 percent of the GDP. Stimulus measures passed in the second half of 2008 promised to push government spending significantly higher,” Dr Singh quoted.The Finance Minister added that Guyana has made much progress with cutting its Domestic Debt Service, which has been reduced from $5B to $3.4B.This is also reflective in the external debt interest, Singh added. |
