-Jagdeo says as he dispels misleading comments, highlights PPP’s restoration of the economy

DESPITE nay-sayers comments that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is mismanaging the economy, the party’s General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has said that his government has successfully gotten rid of billions of dollars in debt.

Jagdeo, while speaking at a press conference held on Thursday, at Freedom House, decided to set the record straight.

Addressing the misleading narrative peddled by members of the Alliance for Change (AFC) during a press conference last week, he said: “When you listen to them [AFC] they don’t have much to say.”

He pointed out that the AFC stating that his government is imperiling the future of the Guyanese children by taking loans, indicates their lack of knowledge on the topic and a failure to recognise the work done by the PPP in achieving one of the lowest debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio in the world.

In highlighting the once deplorable state of Guyana’s economy, PPP General Secretary disclosed that the country’s debt was nine times the size of the economy and the country was using over 100 per cent of revenue to service debt.

“Effectively, our country was bankrupt and that is what happened to Guyana in the 90s under APNU stewardship,” he said.

Prior to the new-found oil wealth, he said that a substantial amount was done by the PPP to lower Guyana’s debt. In fact, in 2015, the nation’s debt had reduced from 900 per cent to around 45 per cent of the GDP.

“Today, our debt based on the last 2022 figure is now about 23 per cent of Gross Domestic Product…it’s one of the lowest figures in the world,” the PPP General Secretary boasted, adding: “so we have some of the best or lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the entire world as of today.”

In contrast with the previous percentage that is over 100 per cent of Guyana’s revenue to service its debt, Jagdeo revealed that last year less than 10 per cent was used and therefore, this is an impressive accomplishment for the nation despite AFC trying to twist the truth.
In fact, he noted that this is a step up when compared to most of our Caribbean counterparts who use upwards of 60 per cent of their revenue to service their debts.

“So, this has been one of the success stories of Guyana and the PPP’s management of our economy and our debt and even now with the debt policy that we have, unlike APNU, we shun variable rate loans,” he said before highlighting that there are only two loans with variable rates, both being international and from multilateral institutions.

Furthermore, the PPP General Secretary addressed another untruth that the PPP government is squandering oil revenue in all parts of the country, which according to him, is far from the reality.

Turning his attention to the Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) who are giving the impression that the government is constantly borrowing, he said those MPs are displaying their ignorance since they are well aware that the loans are accounted for in the budget and are not anything new.

Jagdeo said that those MPs are misleading the nation by acting as though this is newly attained knowledge.

Moreover, he stated that the coalition government whilst in power did not focus on enhancing Guyana. As a matter of fact, their capital budget was reduced every year while in office, he added.

Jagdeo emphasised that his government has already invested massive amounts into not only constructing houses, but also regional hospitals and schools and other infrastructural projects.