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FREEDOMWAYS                            FIRST QUARTER 1968

without grave consequences such as increase in imports, particularly of foods (£28.7m in 1964, £30.7m in 1965 and £33.4m in 1966), rise in prices, increased cost of living, growing debt charges, and budgetary and balance-of-payments deficits. 
Balance-of-payments on current account has changed from a surplus of £26.4 million in 1963 to a deficit of £27.9 million in 1965, £30.9 million in 1966, and a "larger current account deficit is forecast for 1967."
The 1967 budget was brought into balance by consumer taxes on the poor and financial juggling - diverting grants and loans from the British government for the capital budget to the current budget. 
Debt charges have jumped from 12 per cent of the budget n 1960 to 16 per cent in 1966. With another 44 per cent being squandered in salaries for the government's over-bloated bureaucracy, only an inadequate 40 per cent remains for health, education, pensions, subsidies, crop bonuses and guaranteed minimum prices to farmers.
But the 40 per cent is likely to drop to 26 per cent in the early 1970's when debt charges will be about 30 per cent of the budget. Then, in order to maintain social services at existing levels, more taxed will fall on the poor, and Guyana like Latin American countries will be forced to borrow not for development, but to pay debts falling due. in 1956, Latin American countries borrowed $450 million (U.S.) and handed back an exact amount as debt payments. 
The Guyana model of economic planning and development is based on Operation Bootstrap of Puerto Rico, which has certain distinct advantages over other so-called third world countries - U.S. runaway capitalists have the advantage of low wages in Puerto Rico; goods produced in Puerto Rico enter duty-free into the United States; Puerto Ricans can migrate without restrictions into the U.S.A.; millions of dollars collected from duties on rum are returned to Puerto Rico. 
Yet Puerto Rico is still plagued with poverty and unemployment and all the ills of a colonial society. Despite the ballyhoo and the US attempt to make Puerto Rico into a show-piece, the national income per head of population is lower than that of the poorest U.S. state. 
Other third world territories which have followed the Puerto Rican model at U.S. dictation are also in deep trouble. 
Jamaica, like Guyana, boasts of a wonderful performance of the economy-an increase in the gross domestic product between 1950 and 1965 at an annual rate of 7.2 per cent. But for the three suc-

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Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-12 16:03:36