In 2023, inflation has slowed but remains at a high level in the food and energy sectors. Overall, consumer prices of goods and services increase by 3%, after +3.4% in 2022. “ The rise in food prices is increasing (+9.5% after +5.1% in 2022). Energy prices are still increasing significantly (+5%) with the rise in electricity prices despite the drop in prices of petroleum products (-3.5%) », notes INSEE. This affects imports, which are increasing in value but stagnating in volume. Furthermore, ” household loans continue to increase, with an acceleration in consumer loans “. Credit rates are also on the rise.
However, salaried employment continued to increase (+2.9%), with 74,450 employees in the last quarter of 2023, growth mainly due to the non-market tertiary sector. Public employment contributed significantly to this increase with an increase of 3.9%, while private employment increased by 2.1%. Despite the intensification of public employment assistance policies, “ the unemployment rate is increasing, reaching 14% of the active population, double that of mainland France. Job demand increases by 5.3% with 25,600 job seekers in the last quarter of 2023, particularly among young people and women », notes the study.
INSEE notes an increase of +8.3% in business creations in 2023, almost twice as much as in 2022, with an increase in businesses created under the micro-entrepreneur regime.. “ Creations in commerce, transport, accommodation, catering represent 31.1% of all creations. They increased by 3.5% in one year. Company creations are up sharply (+19.8%), while the decline in individual business creations is marked (-27.7%). », Specifies the organization.
Concerning maritime transport, “ in 2023, the activity of the commercial port increases by 0.4% to reach an overall import/export traffic of 932,370 tonnes. The increase of more than 10% in the volume of liquid bulk (oil) offsets the decline in all other freight categories », according to INSEE. The decrease in the rest of freight concerns general cargo, solid bulk and ro-ro freight. The 2% drop in solid bulk traffic is explained by the absence of sand imports in 2023. Finally “ the number of calls shows a decrease of 1.2% compared to the year 2022 with 244 commercial ships calling at the Port of Dégrad des Cannes “.
In the tourism sector, hotel occupancy is increasing in 2023. It is increasing by 5.8% year-on-year, driven by business customers (+13%). “ It represents 72% of overnight stays (i.e. +4.6 points) of hotel attendance in Guyana. Conversely, that of leisure customers fell by 8.9%, compared to 2022, i.e. 11,500 fewer nights », reports INSEE. Additional nights in Guyanese hotels are driven by customers from France (383,000 nights, up 7.7%). However, the share of foreign overnight stays is decreasing, between 2022 (10.4%) and 2023 (8.8%). According to the study, the slowdown in activity at the Kourou space center could explain the decrease in attendance by foreign customers.
Concerning space precisely, “despite a still difficult operational year, space is getting into working order to prepare for the future and is launching into major projects while maintaining its financial commitments to the economic development of Guyana », underlines INSEE. After 117 launches carried out in 27 years since Kourou, Ariane 5 ended its activities in July 2023. Now room for Ariane 6 and Vega Cfor which 2.8 billion euros were allocated by Europe to allow it to have independent access to space.
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