With all these loans, Guyana heading towards ‘pre-source curse’ - Ramson

With all these loans, Guyana heading towards ‘pre-source curse’ – Ramson

Oct 12, 2018 News

Attorney-at-law, Charles Ramson

Attorney at Law Charles Ramson is worried that Guyana is headed swiftly towards the pre-source curse. He said this at a recent press conference.
There, Ramson explained that the pre-source curse refers to occurrences where “before you actually start production, you end up having worst macro-economic fundamentals than when you hadn’t discovered oil in the first place.”
Ramson said that Ghana is a perfect example. He said that that country, which discovered oil in 2010, found itself in worst debt positions even before it started producing oil. He said that the debt position further increased, even though after they started to produce oil and gained extra revenue.
Ramson said that he was further edified about the pre-source curse during his recent training at the Oxford University. He said that on that programme, he met the expert who coined the term pre-source curse—James Cust.
Ramson said that he knows the government is at least aware of the term pre-source curse as it was mentioned in the Green Paper. However, he said that he thinks the government needs to buckle and do more to prevent Guyana from experiencing full-blown pre-source curse.
Ramson said, “Recently, especially within the last six to eight months, we have seen quite a number of loans being taken by the government. Many of the times, we are not quite sure what those loans are for, what are their interest rates, the pay back and maturity period or how it is being structured; we just know that the loans are being taken.”
Ramson continued, “So that in itself, increases our debt position, so effectively, we are already moving into the pre-source curse type of position.

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