Yearbook 1996
Guyana. In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) granted a $ 26 million loan to support the government’s economic reform policy.
Guyana covers an extensive area of land and has historically been involved in a number of territorial disputes with neighboring Venezuela and Suriname, although relations – especially trade – have been good with Brazil.
Jagan wanted to change the structural adjustment program his predecessor Desmond Hoyte had negotiated in place with the IMF. At the same time, his government defended the “non-conventional” methods used to solve the problems of land distribution, transport, health, housing and education. At the same time, he defended the expansion of the market economy, to solve the problem of poverty among the 80% of the population whose emigration exceeded population growth. In this way, the population actually dropped from 1,020,000 in 1989 to 808,000 in 1992.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG: What does GY stand for? In the field of geography, this two letter acronym means Guyana. Check this to see its other meanings in English and other 35 languages.
Guyana’s riches are almost intact. The country has huge gold reserves, diamonds, bauxite, forests and a huge agricultural potential. The state budget deficit triggered significant inflation and was also linked to the smuggling of minerals as well as the determination of export prices of sugar, rice and other agricultural products.
The celebration of the Jagan government’s first year of government was marred by a strike by the state electricity company. It was triggered when the government broke a previous pledge of 300% pay rise for government workers. The government stated that demands from the IMF prevented it from being so “generous”.
In June 1994, Jagan rejected the new ambassador the United States had appointed to the country, accusing him of “subversive activities” during the last term of the British colony administration.
In 1995, the country’s largest environmental disaster so far occurred when 4 million cubic meters of waste material washed into the Oma River, which flows into Essequibo – the country’s most important river.
In February 1996, the human rights organization Amnesty International criticized the use of the death penalty for asphyxiation in Guyana – for the first time since 1990. That same year, the country obtained $ 500 million of its foreign debt – nearly a quarter of its total debt.
After Jagan died in 1997, his wife Janet temporarily assumed the post of prime minister, until the December 15 election where she was elected president with 55.3% of the vote against 40.6% for Hoyte’s PNC. Despite threats of civil disobedience by Hoyte, Janet Jagan was deployed on December 19 at the presidential post. At the same time, Sam Hind was appointed prime minister.
During the first months of his reign, Jagan was faced with a severe drought affecting the country’s production, reducing trade, creating transport problems and increasing the number of forest fires. Price increases triggered protest demonstrations, the largest of which took place in front of the country’s state telephone company headquarters, after it had increased tariffs by 400-1000%.
After almost 20 months in the presidential post, then 78-year-old Jagan retired for health reasons. The post was handed over to her finance minister, Bharrat Jagdeo, who was then 35 years old. The predominantly black party PNC criticized this way of transferring power.
Population 1996
According to Countryaah.com, the population of Guyana in 1996 was 761,180, ranking number 158 in the world. The population growth rate was 0.480% yearly, and the population density was 3.8674 people per km2.
