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Business Daily: Guyana: The world’s fastest-growing economy

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Guyana: The world’s fastest-growing economy

11/09/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Guyana: The world’s fastest-growing economy

We talk to the president of the tiny country which is having an oil boom

We talk to the president of the former British colony in South America - it's economy is expanding rapidly thanks to an oil boom.

The former British colony in South America boasts the world’s fastest-growing economy at the moment – it expanded by 62 per cent last year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The reason is oil. Since 2015, US oil major Exxon and its partners have made a series of massive discoveries in Guyanese waters, catapulting the country into the world’s top 20 in terms of reserves.

That’s bringing billions of dollars into the economy but also challenges: how can Guyana avoid the ‘resource curse’ - the mismanagement and corruption that have afflicted other commodity-rich nations? How can it exploit the oil bonanza with a population of less than a million people? And has the oil come too late anyway – just as the world move away from fossil fuels?

We talk to the country’s president Irfaan Ali.

Presenter and producer: Gideon Long

(Image: President Irfaan Ali. Credit: Keon Blades/ Office of the President Guyana)

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