By the Caribbean Journal staff

Guyana’s economy grew 2.8 percent in the first six months of 2012, according to a report from Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.

“This growth reflects continued progress on the diversification of the productive sector, where we have now arrived at a point where we are no longer as we were 10 years, ago, entirely dependent on one, two or three dominant sectors,” Singh said.

The Minister said the growth came in spite of a contraction in a “key production sector of sugar.”

“Given the significance of sugar and the volatility of sugar production in recent years, we have been computing a non-sugar GDP and, if you excluded sugar for the purposes of computing this non-sugar GDP, this non-sugar GDP actually grew by 6.2 percent in the first half of the year,” he said.

Gold production grew by 13.2 percent in the period, with gold exports totaling $268 million. That was a 16.8 percent increase in the same period in 2011.

Export earnings in Guyana grew by 9.2 percent to a total of $592.1 million USD.

Singh also said Guyana’s bauxite industry grew by 41.9 percent.

Guyana’s GDP increased by 5 percent in 2011, according to data from the International Monetary Fund, with growth expected to be “robust” over the medium term.

In April, the IMF projected Guyana’s GDP to grow by 3.9 percent in 2012, with a 6.6 percent growth projection for 2013.