Budget 2026 debate: “This is our golden era” – Teixeira reflects on Guyana’s journey

…rejects outdated data used by Opposition MP to paint picture of widespread poverty

Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister Gail Teixeira on Friday mounted a detailed defence of the Government’s record on poverty reduction, arguing that widely quoted figures placing Guyana’s poverty rate at 58 per cent are based on outdated data and do not reflect current realities on the ground. Speaking during the fifth and final day of the Budget Debates at the National Assembly at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Teixeira, who made her 34th budget speech, said the figures from the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) 2024 report being relied on by critics used pre-COVID data and failed to capture recent economic and social changes, particularly improvements in access to services and rising household purchasing power. She urged critics to examine poverty indicators outlined in the national budget, pointing to significant growth in access to electricity, potable water, telecommunications, housing and asset ownership.
Among the statistics highlighted were vehicle imports between 2021 and 2025, which she said totalled 80,551 cars, compared with far lower figures between 2015 and 2020. She also cited 16,748 lorries, 8101 pickups, 3280 excavators and 2666 tractors imported during the same period as indicators of expanding economic activity in construction, agriculture and commerce. “These are indicators that are used in terms of social capital to look at the level of poverty in a country,” Teixeira said. “People have the power, the ability to purchase, to get loans to do these things.” She also pointed to growth in telecommunications access, noting that mobile phone subscribers increased from 652,338 between 2015 and 2020 to 1,012,305 between 2021 and 2025, calling this further evidence of improved living standards.

Essential utilities
Addressing access to basic services, Teixeira pointed to improvements in access to essential utilities for Guyanese.
“Between 1992 and now, the majority of people either have access to solar or to electricity,” Teixeira said, adding that “over 90 odd per cent of the population of Guyana have access to clean water and potable water.” She contrasted this with conditions in the early 1990s when residents of Georgetown and rural communities often fetched unsafe water from long distances, when Guyana was governed by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).
Teixeira acknowledged that poverty still exists but rejected claims that more than half the population is currently impoverished, describing it as political opportunism. “We’re not saying there’s no poverty… [but] saying 58 per cent is opportunist and totally incorrect… Anything that makes Guyana look bad, you jump on. It’ll come back to haunt you,” she said. During her address, the Minister strongly criticised opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) for what she described as selective use of statistics and anecdotal claims, singling out A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP David Hinds, whose contribution earlier in the debate referenced poverty and rising living costs. “I am proud to see my country move from what it was in the seventies and eighties to what it is today.

I am proud to have lived long enough to have seen what is happening to my country, to see the change, to see the transformation, to see the improvements in the quality of our people’s lives,” Teixeira said as she reflected on Guyana’s past under the PNCR, which has now coalesced with several parties to form the APNU. She recalled severe deprivation during that period, referencing widespread malnutrition, inadequate housing, and lack of water and electricity in both urban and rural communities, particularly in Georgetown. “The poverty in this country was stark, palpable,” Teixeira remarked.

Social services
Highlighting social services, she noted that Guyana continues to provide free public healthcare, including childbirth and vaccinations, as well as education support and housing programmes. And with a rapidly growing population, she noted that these services will now carry high costs. All of which are being borne by the Government. “This is our golden era. We have to measure where we come from and where we are and where we still have to go. But we are saying that consistently, constantly and sustainably we’re moving this country forward, and in the last five years this country has been on a trajectory never seen before, and it has never experienced,” Teixeira noted. Teixeira was praised by the Speaker, her People’s Progressive Party (PPP) colleagues and APNU MPs for her 34 years of service in the National Assembly.