Guyana’s debt-to-GDP ratio of 16% is among lowest in the world – VP Jagdeo

– assures that future generations not burdened with debt

Guyana’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 16 per cent, is among the lowest in the world. This is according to Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo, who also explained that less than 10 per cent of revenue goes towards servicing this debt.
On Friday, VP Bharrat Jagdeo was the feature speaker at the University of Guyana’s (UG) Economic Society Forum. While there, the VP spoke on policy matters, and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s management of Guyana’s national debt.
Earlier this year when he presented the national budget, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh had announced that Guyana’s debt was US$5.9 million at the end of 2024. According to the VP at the forum, Guyana once had a debt burden that was multiple times the size of the GDP. Now, the debt to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world.

“By 2015, pre oil, our debt to GDP ratio had been reduced to one of the lowest in the entire world. It was about 40 to 45 per cent of GDP, down from 900 per cent. So, that was pre oil. And our servicing of that debt had plunged from 153 per cent of revenue to under 10 per cent.”
“And this was pre oil. Today, our debt is about 16 per cent of GDP. So definitely among the lowest in the world. We’re using about six per cent of revenue,” Jagdeo also explained to the youth audience.
With this in mind, Jagdeo noted that the country could afford to borrow to fund investments in Guyana and its people today. According to him, the debt burden as it stands today is a sustainable one.
“So, when you hear people say, oh we’re borrowing all of this money. You hear this a lot from the opposition. We have one of the lowest debt variables anywhere in the world now, coming down from that unsustainable period.”
“So, we’re not burdening future generations, with paying that debt. That is what we had to work through. The debt burden bequeathed to us, represented lost opportunities for development, because we had to take care of it,” the VP said.
Guyana’s debt has been aimed largely at developing the country’s infrastructure. Among the massive projects being undertaken through loans, with a 2030 and beyond focus, are the US$260 million Chinese funded Demerara River Bridge and the partially British funded US$190 million Linden to Mabura road.
In the case of the Demerara River Bridge, the structure will have a lifespan of 100 years… far eclipsing the lifespan of the old bridge. The new bridge will be a fixed 2.65-kilometre (km), four-lane, high-span, cable-stayed structure across the Demerara River, with the width of the driving surface being about 23.6 metres. The bridge, which features a bicycle lane, will bring an end to closures to vehicular traffic with a 50-metre fixed-high span to cater for the free flow of vessels uninterrupted. The river will be dredged along a 13.5-kilometre stretch to accommodate large vessels.
When it comes to the Linden to Mabura road, which will eventually reach all the way to Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), this is a vital road network that is being utilised by thousands of persons who transport goods from the coast to the inland regions of Guyana.
Minster Singh had previously disclosed that at the end of 2023, total Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) debt stood at US$4,508.8 million, up 23.4 per cent 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 per cent 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, in 2023, 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.