SN and the cost of living series

Feb 24, 2026 Letters

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Dear Editor,

One of the signature contributions of Stabroek News — now at Part 168 (February 2026) — is it’s long-running Series, “How the Cost of Living is Affecting People”.  Long before “affordability” and “living wage”, became everyday language, the newspaper was showing what they mean for working-class households. This is public service at its finest.

The Series fills two gaps in tracking the cost-of-living: (a) broad coverage across the country in contrast with the official CPI (Consumer Price Index) based on data collected in Georgetown, and (b) timeliness. So, I feel obliged to make one last contribution to Stabroek News, Letters to the Editor column, by revisiting affordability through the Frugal Family of Four enjoying “chicken stew” — Guyanese term — and rice for supper.

(https://www.stabroeknews.com/2024/07/12/opinion/letters/the-stabroek-news-high-frequency-monthly-coverage-of-the-cost-of-living-is-certainly-providing-a-more-reliable-cpi-index/#google_vignette)

This frugal family could be anywhere in the broad income range of between G$60,000/mth to $100,000/mth, though a range of G$90,000-G$290,000 is often cited for some sectors.  Police and firefighters earn about G$150,000/mth minimum. But Parliamentarians earn between G$500,000/mth to G$3.5 million/mth.

Using a mid-point salary of G$80,000/mth to represent a national average for lower- income households, the table below shows that the cost of a chicken stew has gone up 35 percent since Feb-2023. By Feb-2026 the main income earner in our representative family must work at least a full day to bring home a plucked chicken.  For politicians, no sweat.

All of this leads into the general question of how the majority is juggling their wallets, month by month. Now step back.

• Overall prices (CPI index shown by the solid black line) have risen 23 percent since Feb-2019 (before oil and Covid);
• Food prices (solid blue line) have climbed 49 percent, faster than overall prices;
• Overall inflation (the rate of change in the CPI, shown by the dotted red line) has dropped sharply since 2022 and stood at 2.5 percent in Feb-2026 (according to the Bureau of Statistics).

That is progress on the inflation front; prices are slowing. But prices remain high. That is affordability. Affordability is about the price level, not inflation. Why? When people go to buy “banga mary” or “baigan”, they are not thinking about inflation (statistical releases) but, rather, whether the money can “stretch”. And affordability is always and everywhere relative to wages or salaries. Since food has a big weight in household expenditures, likely as high as 60 percent, consumers feel the price shock.

The solution is not for half the able-bodied population to head to rivers, creeks, and canals with cast nest and fishing rods. Fish stocks will disappear and productive sectors will face more labour shortages. The real solution is increasing Guyana’s capabilities to produce a stable supply of foods. But this is easier said than done: moving from field to eating table requires co-ordination, investment, and planning — not ad hoc measures (often for optics).

Finally, data matter.  Without trustworthy statistics, governments of all stripes either work in the dark or mislead the public.  The current CPI has clear weaknesses:

• Need for more transparency for data users to see basket weights tables, sampling frames, and detailed methodological notes. (The weight of food probably exceeds 50 percent, compared to 40 percent based on the 2006 Household Budget Survey;
• For transparency and credibility, the Bureau of Statistics should publish a parallel series or back cast series for the Georgetown-based inflation rate when the CPI is rebased;
• Georgetown-based CPI does not reflect national variation (reported in the Stabroek News series on the cost of living);
• Weights anchored in 2005/2006 spending patterns; even rebasing to 2018/2019 HBS predates Covid in 2020 and, significantly, subsequent global supply shocks.
• Weak data constrains the ability of the Bank of Guyana to maintain price stability and guard against real exchange rate overvaluation (even as the nominal/market rate is behaving stably) and Dutch Disease.

The Guyanese public, including the diaspora, expects Kaieteur News to continue the work of Stabroek News — hope it survives — to report the cost of living across Guyana. It is both an essential public service and a public good.

Sincerely,

Terence M. Yhip

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• affordability, Letters, Stabroek News, Terence Yhip

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