The Guyana government has revised downwards its prediction for economic growth for the remainder of 2012.

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh said Guyana has produced a most commendable economic performance for the first half of the year despite the ongoing global economic and financial crisis.

But due to the sugar sector not performing as expected, the economic growth projection for 2012 has been slightly reduced from 4.1 to 3.8 per cent.

Singh said that sugar industry is unlikely to improve in the second part of the year and that for the first six months of this year, the non-sugar sectors grew by 6.2 per cent with the rice industry continuing to do extremely well along with gold sector.

He said the bauxite industry did well during the first half of 2012, apart from a brief period of interruption due to the Linden unrest which caused the projection of this sector to be revised.

The finance minister noted that long-term commitments and investments made in Guyana will produce a tremendous impact on the local economy and pointed to investments in bauxite, oil, dry land rice and the expansion of current foreign investments.

He said he was confident that projects such as the Amaila Falls, the expanding information communication and technology sector would provide an exciting future for Guyana.

- CMC