Guyana’s public spending more than doubled on hospitals, schools & other programmes – ECLAC

– accelerated spending also recorded in housing, roads & agriculture

Guyana’s public sector spending has more than doubled in recent times, with programmes such as hospitals, schools and road infrastructure benefitting from Guyana’s injection of oil money to accelerate capital expenditure to benefit ordinary Guyanese.
This is encapsulated in the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean’s (ECLAC) 2023 “Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean” report.
The report notes that across the Region, capital expenditures are expected to remain stable around their previous year’s level, while in Guyana, the Government has been accelerating its expenditure on public investment programmes.
“In Guyana, expenditure on the public investment programme more than doubled, driven by the construction of hospitals, schools, housing, roads and agricultural infrastructure,” the ECLAC report states.
“It should be kept in mind that the execution of capital expenditures tends to be concentrated in the last quarter, so the figures for the first half of the year do not necessarily indicate the level of spending that will be achieved by the year-end.”
Meanwhile, it was explained that Guyana has been using funds from both the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD), for budgetary allocations.
“In the case of Guyana, the central government made withdrawals from the Natural Resource Fund, a sovereign wealth fund financed by oil revenues. Although of a lesser magnitude, it is important to note that Guyana received revenues from carbon credits for the first time during the first half of the year, having agreed on the first commercial sale of carbon credits in December 2022.
The credits in question were sold to the Hess Corporation to finance projects aimed at protecting the country’s forests,” ECLAC said.
Only a few days ago, the Government made its eighth and final withdrawal from the NRF, withdrawing US$150.1 million to finance projects under the 2023 budget. Back in November, the Government had made its sixth and seventh withdrawals (both US$100 million, respectively) from the NRF. Then, in September, the Government reported its fifth withdrawal from the NRF, totalling G$10.4 billion (equivalent to US$50 million).
It was also announced that in August and September 2023, amounts totalling US$200 million or G$41.6 billion had been transferred from the NRF to the Consolidated Fund to finance national development priorities. These withdrawals followed another US$400 million or G$83.2 billion being taken out of the NRF in February and May of last year.
A few days ago, President Ali said that the policies and programmes being implemented by his Government are ultimately aimed at wealth creation and growth for every Guyanese. During a live broadcast on Thursday evening where he fired back at “propagandist messaging”, he highlighted the various ways in which the strategies rolled out by his Administration within the last three years have transformed communities and positively impacted the lives of almost every citizen.
“The purpose of Government is to invest and create the opportunity so that the population can grow wealth. We are skilfully crafting a model that meets our social and economic transformation in a way that ensures what we call resilience in the framework…we cannot just say that we have projected finances in the future so that we are going to spend in a way that is not sustainable.”
“So, we are creating a resilient approach to managing our finances; a careful and considerate approach to ensure that our current expenditure does not become bloated and to ensure that the capital investment itself is adding value and creating value to the population in general,” he had explained.
Referencing the recent road network in the New Diamond Housing Scheme on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), President Ali further highlighted how the investments in that area have significantly increased the net present and future value of lands and properties there. (G-3)