–Dr. Singh says
IN order to finance several development projects as Guyana continues to progress rapidly, the Government of Guyana intends to increase the country’s debt ceiling, Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh has said.

Dr. Singh, during an interview with the News Room, said that the government has been making significant investments and managing the country’s finances responsibly.
“Given all of these heavy investments initiatives and also ramping up of social programmes, we have of course been incurring a fiscal deficient, this is publicly known. It’s reflected in our annual budget every year and so you finance the budget deficit by borrowing and we have been borrowing very prudently,” the minister said.

Now with Guyana’s economy rapidly growing, it is pertinent that the country makes adjustments to its debt ceiling.
“As the economy grows, our capacity to borrow increases and we intend to use that capacity to finance an aggressive programme to modernise, and transform our country and improve the lives of Guyanese peoples,” Dr. Singh said.
In 2021, orders seeking to make the necessary adjustments to both the domestic and external debt ceilings were tabled in the National Assembly,

Dr. Singh had proposed to the National Assembly that the domestic debt ceiling of $150 billion be increased to $500 billion, and that the existing $400 billion external debt ceiling be increased to $650 billion.
Following intense debates by both the government and the opposition, motions were approved by the House.

Dr. Singh anticipates that the opposition will object once again and attempt to undermine the government’s development agenda.
“They will object …they will first of all present this borrowing more and characterise that as a bad thing or a negative thing… and the reason for this really is very simple, they are well aware that we are contracting this borrowing for the purpose of financing development programmes and they don’t want development programmes to be delivered as long as the People’s Progressive Party is in government,” he said.