Guyana’s debt burden lowest in Western Hemisphere – Min Indar reiterates

Guyana has the lowest debt ratio in the Western Hemisphere, despite inheriting majority of that debt from the A Partnership for National Unity and The Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition government during their time in office, which spans from 2015 to 2020.

This comment was made by Minister within the ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar in response to Opposition Parliamentarian Juretha Fernandes claim that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration has placed a debt burden of 1.8 million on every Guyanese household.
During her remarks on day on 2024 National Budget Debates in the National Assembly, at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Fernandes disclosed that the opposition expects the county’s domestic and external debt to skyrocket in the future.
In this regard, she said the budget dubbed “Staying the Course: Building Prosperity for All,” will only raise the cost the living the ordinary man which “results in poverty”.
“In the period 2015 to 2019 the APNU coalition government…spent a total of 1.2 trillion after the budgetary period comes to an end PPP would have spent 3.25 trillion dollar in the period 2020 to 2024 a difference of roughly 2 trillion Guyana dollars…with the rising cost of living that Guyanese are facing budget 2024 been the biggest disappointment from the PPP thus far…we are not going to sit back and let the PPP run this economy down further than they have already done because we will invest in you and your children trickle-down economics have no place in Guyana’s governance sir,” Fernandes stated.
However, Indar debunked the claims made by Opposition Parliamentarian Fernandes, highlighting that Guyana is the fastest growing economy, whose real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 33 percent and non-oil real economy grew by 11.7 percent, in 2023.
Indar noted that the growth recorded, is attributed to the expansion of the Guyana’s oil and gas activities, and non-oil sectors which all expanded due to targeted budgetary provisions allocated between 2020 to 2023.
He also revealed that the country’s debt ratio is 27 percent and administration remain steadfast in its commitment to maintaining a strong debt sustainability position for Guyana
“It is 27 percent the honourable minister Singh put it inside the document she didn’t read or she didn’t compare because if you compare it to the rest of the Western Hemisphere no country has a lower debt to GDP ratio tax burden as Guyana… and that is something they could never achieve…the debt stock of this country gone back decades we still paying for some of them old projects it adds up and it keeps adding but its only 3.8 percent of your total spend.”
On January 15, the country’s largest fiscal package of $1.146 trillion dollars was presented to the National Assembly by Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh under the theme: “Staying the Course: Building Prosperity for All.”
During his presentation Minster Singh disclosed that at the end of 2023, total Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) debt stood at US$4,508.8 million, up 23.4 percent from the position at the end of 2022.
Additionally, the country’s external debt amounted to US$1,775.5 million at the end of 2023, up 13 percent from the position at the end of 2022 on account of positive net flows from both bilateral and multilateral creditors.
Domestic debt totalled US$2,733.4 million at the end of 2023, up from the US$2,083 million at the end of 2022. This increase was attributed to the Government’s issuance of new Treasury Bills.
Further, last year, the total public debt service payments amounted to US$177.3 million, an increase from US$150.2 million in 2022 and this increase was driven by both domestic and external debt service payments.