Latest update October 3rd, 2026 10:20 AM
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Guyana’s oil wealth at risk as public borrowing triples
Dear Editor,
The Overall Deficit After Grants in the Guyanese public finance has deteriorated dramatically over the last 12 months under the watch of Dr. Ashni Singh. It declined from negative $35 billion in the first half of 2025 to negative $105 billion in the first half of 2026. No government can credibly present this as an achievement. It is driven almost entirely by runaway public expenditure, which rose by $62 billion year-on-year, while revenues shrunk by nearly $4 billion. Spending more while earning less is not a recipe for national development; it is a national disaster.
Rather than deal with this hard truth, the Irfaan Ali Government has sought to hoodwink the population on how much new oil revenues we have. But the truth of the matter more and more of our oil revenues are being pawned away to the banks as we borrow more and more every day.
These figures reveal that the PPP/C administration under President Irfaan Ali is pursuing a markedly more expansionary fiscal policy, financed through borrowing. Borrowing in Guyana tripled between the first half of 2025 and the first half of 2026. Let me repeat that: borrowing tripled in a single year and the figures are all there in their own Ministry of Finance MID-YEAR REPORT 2026.
Net external borrowing surged from $19 billion to $71 billion, while net borrowing from the local banking sector rose from $16 billion to $35 billion, apparently to absorb excess liquidity being paid out to their favoured friends and families in the contracting class. The administration is borrowing from foreigners, and domestic lenders alike, with the evident purpose of financing a contracting class on projects that are not bringing relief to the people. How is Irfaan Ali delivering productive national development to the people of this nation?
Unless the non-oil economy grows consistently and persistently faster than this debt accumulation, Guyana risks seeing its oil wealth (currently held in the Natural Resource Fund), pledged away to banks and other creditors. This raises immediate and serious concerns about debt sustainability and future interest burdens, something which Mr. Christopher Ram continues to highlight for the nation.
Interest payments already rose by $5 billion between the first half of 2025 and the first half of 2026. At this pace, annual interest payments are projected to exceed $20 billion by year-end, a snowballing obligation that consumes ever more fiscal space and leaves less for the Guyanese people. That is money flowing to lenders, not to citizens.
Dr. Ashni Singh is failing this nation as Minister of Finance by permitting his political leaders to raid the treasury without issuing the necessary fiscal advisories. This is not how a solid foundation is built for a nation.
Over the past three years, these reckless policies have directly fuelled inflation and a runaway cost of living crisis, while the government deflects blame onto the Gulf war and Ukraine war rather than leveling with the people on their poor public financial policies. They have also crowded out private sector investment, which could have grown by an additional $70 billion over the past year had the government not absorbed so much new debt in the name of the people.
The Guyanese people should take nothing this administration says at face value. In real terms, they will be poorer next year than they were last year. Guyana’s most talented professionals already recognise this, which is precisely why so many young, skilled citizens continue to seek opportunities in better-managed countries abroad.
Our future is bleak. The PPP/C administration continues to mislead the uninformed public about the true nation of our country’s finance. Future administration will be saddled with a humongous public debt that must be serviced. These reckless borrowing not only pawns future revenue to service the debt, but more importantly, it robs the citizens of services that must be curtailed to service the debt.
President Ali needs to come clean. In his recent trip to New York he boasted of the transformation of the economy with the building of roads, hospitals, and schools. What he failed to inform his audience is the burgeoning debt he has recklessly placed on the necks of our children and grandchildren.
Sincerely,
Charles Sugrim
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