Budget 2026 slated for January

– fiscal package to give effect to President Ali’s strategic 5-year plan

Vice President (VP) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday confirmed that Budget 2026 will be presented in January 2026, stressing that the upcoming fiscal package will give full effect to President Dr Irfaan Ali’s strategic five-year development agenda, which was outlined during his recent national address.
Speaking at his weekly press conference at Freedom House on Robb Street, Jagdeo cautioned against the misconception that the President’s address amounted to a budget presentation, emphasising that the speech was intended to set policy direction rather than announce detailed spending measures.
“I don’t want the impression to be created that the President made the budget speech,” Jagdeo said. “The budget speech will come in January, and it will give effect to what the President said and much more.”
Jagdeo explained that President Ali’s address focused on laying out the broad policy framework and strategic priorities for the next five years, rather than detailing every initiative or expenditure.
“What the President was doing was outlining the broad agenda,” he said. “He dealt with some very specific promises that he made, but he did not attempt to announce every initiative.”

Assessment of Guyana’s current position
According to the VP, one of the most important aspects of the President’s message was its honest assessment of Guyana’s current position, acknowledging both the progress made and the disparities that remain. He noted that over the past five years, the Government has delivered on key commitments, resulting in visible improvements nationwide.
“We made a lot of progress in the past five years because we kept our promise to people,” Jagdeo said. “We expanded education. We expanded healthcare through many initiatives. We expanded infrastructure. We expanded job creation and income creation – and that’s visible for all Guyanese to see.”
“This progress has not touched our country evenly across Guyana, and it has not touched everyone the same way, or every sector,” he said. “Although our entire country may have seen improvements – whether you live in the deepest part of our hinterland or on the coast – not everyone has the same opportunity.”
Jagdeo strongly defended the administration’s record, listing multiple commitments that he said were not only promised but delivered – often beyond original targets.
“We promised 50,000 education slots; we delivered it,” he said. “We promised 20,000 scholarships; we delivered 37,000, plus tens of thousands more through other programmes.”
He added that the Government implemented free education, paid CXC examination fees despite not initially promising to do so, restored the one-month joint services bonus, reinstated water and electricity subsidies for pensioners, and removed taxes on a wide range of food items.
“We removed the taxes on gasoline and diesel that cost us about $100 billion a year,” Jagdeo said. “Every gallon of gas or diesel you buy has over $500 in subsidy.”
Further, Jagdeo sought to ground expectations around oil revenues, pointing out that petroleum income alone cannot fund the national budget.
“All of the oil revenue that we have is only 37 per cent of the budget,” he said. “You can’t even finance 50 per cent of the budget from oil money, but we want big cash grants – so where is the rest of the money going to come from?”
He explained that the Government’s five-year planning framework is designed to responsibly finance national priorities through a mix of funding sources.
“We know now, based on very conservative forecasts in revenue, how we will finance all of these measures,” Jagdeo said. “It will be a combination of oil revenue, non-oil revenue, and some borrowing on terms that we have defined.”
Importantly, he noted Guyana’s strong fiscal position, highlighting that the Natural Resource Fund currently holds more money than the country’s total external foreign debt.
President Dr Irfaan Ali on Wednesday outlined a five-year blueprint aimed at fast-tracking Guyana’s transformation, promising people-centred development through cash grants, tax relief, salary increases and welfare support.
Speaking during a national address at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, the Guyanese leader explained that the aim is to build an even more resilient economy through further diversification of non-oil economic activities while ensuring that citizens’ interests and well-being are protected.