This coun­try’s econ­o­my is ex­pect­ed to grow by 3.2 per cent this year, the Eco­nom­ic Com­mis­sion for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has pro­ject­ed.

This is just un­der the av­er­age growth rate of 3.5 per cent an­tic­i­pat­ed for the Caribbean re­gion if Guyana’s growth rate is not in­clud­ed, ECLAC stat­ed.

Guyana’s econ­o­my is ex­pect­ed to grow by 37.2 per cent.

With Guyana’s growth in­clud­ed the Caribbean’s av­er­age is 9.1 per cent.

Ac­cord­ing to ECLAC the economies of Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean are fac­ing a com­plex ex­ter­nal sce­nario in 2023, marked by low growth in eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty and glob­al trade.

“In ad­di­tion, the in­ter­est rate hikes car­ried out glob­al­ly were com­pound­ed by the fi­nan­cial tur­bu­lence seen in ear­ly March, which has in­creased un­cer­tain­ty and volatil­i­ty in fi­nan­cial mar­kets. Al­though in­fla­tion­ary pres­sures have slowed, mon­e­tary pol­i­cy rates are ex­pect­ed to re­main high through­out 2023 in the main de­vel­oped economies,” it stat­ed.

ECLAC stat­ed that in this con­text of grow­ing ex­ter­nal un­cer­tain­ties and do­mes­tic re­stric­tions, the slow­down in eco­nom­ic growth to deep­en in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean in 2023, reach­ing a rate of 1.2per cent.

ECLAC stat­ed that the re­gion’s coun­tries are fac­ing lim­it­ed space for fis­cal and mon­e­tary pol­i­cy once again in 2023.

“As in the rest of the world, in­fla­tion in the re­gion is ex­hibit­ing a down­ward trend, and while the process of in­ter­est rate hikes in sev­er­al of the re­gion’s coun­tries is ex­pect­ed to end soon, the ef­fects of this re­stric­tive pol­i­cy on pri­vate con­sump­tion and in­vest­ment will be felt more strong­ly this year, due to the lag time with which mon­e­tary pol­i­cy acts. In ad­di­tion, giv­en the re­cent glob­al fi­nan­cial volatil­i­ty re­lat­ed to prob­lems at banks in de­vel­oped coun­tries, and giv­en that re­gion­al in­fla­tion is seen re­main­ing high in com­par­i­son with pre-pan­dem­ic lev­els, a mon­e­tary eas­ing cy­cle is not ex­pect­ed to take hold yet in the re­gion,” it stat­ed.

The Unit­ed Na­tions re­gion­al com­mis­sion es­ti­mates that all of the sub­re­gions will ex­pe­ri­ence low­er growth in 2023 ver­sus 2022. South Amer­i­ca will grow by 0.6 per cent in 2023 (ver­sus 3.8 per cent in 2022); the group made up of Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and Mex­i­co will ex­pand by 2 per cent (in com­par­i­son with 3.5 per cent in 2022), and the Caribbean (with­out in­clud­ing Guyana) will grow by 3.5 per cent (in com­par­i­son with 5.8 per cent in 2022).

In the Caribbean economies, the de­cel­er­a­tion fore­cast for 2023 is due main­ly to the fact that in­fla­tion has af­fect­ed both re­al in­come—and with it, con­sump­tion—as well as pro­duc­tion costs, with a neg­a­tive im­pact on the com­pet­i­tive­ness of ex­ports, both of goods as well as tourism.