Guyana’s revenue share shrinks despite explosive oil growth – new ECLAC report

May 07, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) – Guyana’s economy may be booming at record speed, but a new international report suggests the country is collecting a surprisingly small share of that wealth in taxes.

According to the report released by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean titled: ‘Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 2026’, Guyana recorded the lowest tax-to-GDP ratio in the region at just 9.2% in 2024 far below the regional average of 21.7% .

The report also noted that Guyana’s tax burden fell by 2.4 percentage points in just one year, one of the steepest declines across Latin America and the Caribbean. But the drop is not due to weaker tax collection. Instead, the report points to Guyana’s extraordinary economic expansion, particularly in the oil sector as the main driver. “The 2.4 p.p. fall in Guyana was a result of extraordinary economic growth (notably in the oil sector) outpacing increases in tax revenues,” the report noted.  According to the report, oil production continues to fuel rapid GDP growth, with the country among the fastest-growing economies globally. However, this surge has created a statistical imbalance: the economy is expanding so quickly that even rising tax revenues appear smaller relative to total output.

Meanwhile, according to ECLAC, tax revenues rose in more than half of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in 2024, with the largest gains occurring in those that implemented major tax reforms. The report was released on Tuesday at the UN-ECLAC 38th Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy in Santiago, Chile. It shows that tax revenues rose as a share of GDP in 15 of the 28 countries in the LAC region included in the report and declined in 13.

According to ECLAC, the largest increases were observed in Antigua and Barbuda (1.9 percentage points [p.p.]), Brazil (2.0 p.p.), Barbados (2.1 p.p.) and Cuba (5.0 p.p.). Each of these countries recently introduced major tax reforms, which increased revenues from taxes on goods and services (Brazil, Cuba, and Antigua and Barbuda) and from corporate income tax (Barbados and Brazil).

The two largest declines in the tax-to-GDP ratio were mainly due to economic factors. In Trinidad and Tobago, lower energy prices and declining natural gas production contributed to a fall of 3.0 p.p., while in Guyana strong economic growth outpaced increases in tax revenues, resulting in a fall of 2.4 p.p.

The report shows that tax-to-GDP ratios in the LAC region ranged from 9.2% in Guyana to 33.7% in Brazil in 2024 (Figure 1), with a regional average of 21.7%, an increase of 0.2 p.p. from the previous year. Excluding Cuba, the average was unchanged from the previous year as slow economic growth and volatile commodity prices weighed on revenues.

Taxes on goods and services continue to represent the largest part of the tax mix in many LAC countries, with a lower contribution from income taxes and social security contributions than in OECD countries. In 2024, taxes on goods and services accounted for 49.2% of total tax revenues on average across the LAC region, driven largely by value-added tax (VAT, 28.9% of revenues). Taxes on income and profits generated 29.1% of total revenues (17.4% from corporate income tax and 9.6% from personal income taxes) and social security contributions accounted for 15.9%.

Looking further back, the average tax-to-GDP ratio for the LAC region rose by 1.5 p.p. between 2014 and 2024, largely due to increases in revenues from VAT and from taxes on income and profits. Over this period, tax revenues rose as a share of GDP in 21 LAC countries and declined in 7. Tax revenues per capita increased in all countries, more than doubling in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Guyana in PPP terms.

The difference between the LAC average tax-to-GDP ratio and the average for OECD countries has narrowed only slightly over the past decade. The OECD average tax-to-GDP ratio rose by 1.2 p.p. between 2014 and 2024, reducing the gap with the LAC average to 12.3 p.p. in 2024.  The report shows how fiscal revenues in some of the largest economies in the LAC region are significantly affected by fluctuations in commodity prices. Amid strong volatility in oil and gas markets, average hydrocarbon revenues among major producers fell to 3.1% of GDP in 2024 from 4.1% of GDP in 2023. Decreases in Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago drove the overall decline, which was partly offset by higher oil revenues in Guyana. Meanwhile, revenues from mining fell from 0.55% of GDP in 2023 to 0.47% of GDP in 2024, largely due to a sharp drop in tax revenues in Colombia.

In 2025, oil and gas revenues are projected to have fallen to 3.0% of GDP due to a sharp decline in hydrocarbon prices, while mining revenues are estimated to have risen to 0.63% of GDP, supported by exceptional increases in the price of gold, silver and, to a lesser extent, copper. Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 2026 is a joint publication by the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre for Tax Policy and Administration and Development Centre.

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• ECLAC, Guyana Oil, oil growth, Report

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