Where’s… the US$?

A lot of business folks are getting very frustrated – even though more US$ are entering the economy than ever before, they just can’t get enough of them!! The numbers make the puzzle quite stark – Government says US$3.115B in foreign currency flowed through the financial system during the first half of 2026 – while commercial banks purchased US$2.279B and BOG foreign-currency injections reached US$836M. Yet the banks report more than US$200 million in unmet demand!! Credit-card settlements alone reached about US$356 million in 2026 – showing how rapidly our demand for foreign goods and services is expanding!!
The thing is, that US$3.115B of foreign-currency “availability” ain’t a pile of US$3.115 billion greenbacks sitting in bank vaults waiting for importers – it’s a flow!! Dollars enter and leave all the time through exports, imports, investment, debt payments, credit cards, profit repatriation and so on!! And Oil complicates the picture further.
Our oil revenues don’t flow directly into the commercial foreign-exchange market – but first enter the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) handled by the BoG. The 2026 Budget permits approximately US$2.374 billion to be withdrawn from the NRF which the BoG will transfer to the Consolidated Fund this year – in Guyana$$!! That distinction is critical. A US$ in the NRF ain’t the same thing as a US$ available at Republic Bank, GBTI or a Cambio.
Let’s say the Government withdraws US$100 million from the NRF to finance roads, schools and drainage. The contractors gonna be paid in Guyana dollars but will need US$ for excavators, trucks, fuel, spare parts etc!! Likewise, their workers will spend their increased incomes on imported food, cars, electronics, travel and online purchases!! The BoG would then sell the Banks the US$ they need from the US$100M it held as reserves – after transferring the equivalent G$ to the Consolidated Fund!!
Thus oil revenues can produce the apparent contradiction of increasing Guyana’s foreign assets while simultaneously generating even greater demand for foreign exchange!! The same applies to rapidly expanding private credit – as of June 2026, private-sector credit was already 11.5% above December’s level, while household credit had risen 14.6%. More G$ circulating through a heavily import-dependent economy eventually means more people arriving at the banks asking for US$!!
So the important question ain’t no longer, “Does Guyana have enough US dollars?” Clearly, we got those plenty at the BOG!! The pertinent question is how quickly are they entering the commercial banking system to satisfy demands for US$ by its impatient customers – and also to clear G$ piling up as deposits to create excess liquidity – since it doesn’t appear that the BOG is doing that by issuing T-Bills!!
So we got a situation of “US$, US$ everywhere – but not a US$ to spend!!

…the squealer?
There was once a PNC Guyanese fella from Brooklyn who squealed that he was so thick with Democratic Congressional leader Hakeem Jeffries – who’s also a leader in the Congressional Black Caucus – that breeze couldn’t pass between them – literally!! A couple of years ago he inveigled the Congressman to support his hysterical line that the PPP govt was discriminating against African Guyanese!!
Well, since then, the PPP’s inclusiveness has become so deepened and widened that the shift in African Guyanese support for them must’ve been so obvious that even with Hakeem fighting for Democratic relevance against the Trump Juggernaut in the upcoming mid-term elections – had to take notice!!
Your Eyewitness therefore wasn’t surprised to see him posing with PPP’s Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning Keoma Griffith last week at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in Washington D.C.!! Didn’t see the squealer anywhere in sight!!
He also seemed to’ve teed off the local foaming-mouth extremists like Black Pudding Man – cause they’ve blanked him!!

…the hegemon?
If Sanction Man’s daady’s to be believed, the PPP government is so powerful that it’s able to order around the most powerful nation on Earth!! The fella’s insisting the recent visa yanking of a Judge was the PPP’s doing!!