–latest UN ECLAC report highlights

GUYANA continues to boast the lowest public debt level in the region, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean’s (ECLAC)’s “Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2025” report.

The report highlighted that Guyana’s public debt ratio has been decreasing since 2022 owing to high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates, which were higher than 40 per cent in real terms in 2024, driven by the expansion of offshore oil production.

Guyana has been transformed from a country that was once swallowed in debt to a nation with a public debt that continues to display a downward trend, and this was even highlighted in United Nations ECLAC’s “Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2024” report.

Further, the United Nations ECLAC’s “Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2023” report had also said that Guyana’s debt-to- GDP ratio fell by an impressive 16 percentage points between 2021 and 2022, as a result of a 62.3 per cent increase in economic output in real terms, due to the commencement of offshore oil-and-gas production.
Under the leadership of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), there have been active steps to make strategic investments and manage the nation’s finances responsibly.
The total Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) debt-to-GDP ratio has reduced from 47.4 per cent at the end of 2020 to 24.3 per cent at the end of 2024.
This was according to Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh during this year’s budget presentation.

He said: “Over the last four and half years, our government extended its track record of responsible management of Guyana’s public debt. Notwithstanding our transformative development agenda, debt has remained sustainable. The government remains resolutely committed to our objective of mobilising development financing within prudent cost and risk parameters.”
Against this backdrop, Dr. Singh noted that Guyana’s total public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) debt amounted to US$5.993 billion at the end of 2024, mainly on account of net inflows from external and domestic creditors.
Under the People’s National Congress (PNC), Guyana was marred by a significant debt service burden, when the country’s debt was once nine times the size of the economy and the country was using over 100 per cent of revenue to service debt.

However, Guyana has since gained better footing and is no longer facing a crippling debt servicing crisis.
As Minister Singh put it, the current figures provide a clear indication of a marked improvement in Guyana’s capacity to maintain public debt into the future, without the need for fiscal adjustments.

While noting that external PPG debt at the end of 2024 was US$2.239 billion, the minister said that net inflows from external creditors in 2024 were mainly associated with major infrastructural works like the East Coast Demerara Road Improvement Project, the East Bank-East Coast Road Linkage Project, and the New Demerara River Bridge Project; healthcare projects like the establishment of six regional Hospitals, a Paediatric and Maternal Hospital and a new hospital complex in New Amsterdam; as well as social protection programmes and the procurement of aircraft for military use.