–De Armas says, rejects opposition parliamentarian’s claim that poverty is ‘growing’
WHILE defending the government’s development strategy to spur job creation and long-term economic reform, Director General of the Ministry of Public Utilities and Aviation, Alfonso De Armas, rejected the recent claims by opposition parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir that poverty in Guyana is “growing,” accusing her of misreading outdated data.
In a detailed response to a published letter written by Walton-Desir on Monday, De Armas said the letter published by Stabroek News headlined: 58 per cent in poverty and 32 per cent in extreme poverty, was presented without proper context, as it is not a current assessment of poverty in Guyana.
“Unfortunately, the data source, an IDB paper, is not a current poverty assessment of Guyana,” De Armas said, noting that the report is based on a regional, cross-country exercise that harmonises different surveys across Latin America and the Caribbean.
He further noted that for Guyana, the underlying source of the data is the 2021 Labour Force Survey. While this was expressly cited by the authors of the paper, the Director General pointed out that it was omitted by Walton in her letter.
The 2021 Labour Force Survey itself relies on data collected during the first quarter of that calendar year, he highlighted, stating: “That distinction matters.”
He then posited whether it was a deliberate omission or not by Walton-Desir, her letter repeatedly implies deterioration and “growing” poverty.
“On what empirical basis is poverty ‘growing?” De Armas asked.
“Editor, it doesn’t take an economist to understand that a single estimate, especially one based on 2021 data, cannot establish direction, however emphatically it is presented,” he wrote.
He then criticised the series of fallacies within Walton-Desir’s letter, including the claim that government policy relies on “handouts or flashy ribbon-cutting ceremonies.”
“This is a classic straw-man fallacy; setting up a caricature of government action as nothing more than handouts and photo opportunities, then knocking it down by arguing for jobs and long-term growth, as if the two are mutually exclusive. They are not,” he wrote.
The Director General said that “no serious observer” of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government’s policy direction, over the past several years, could credibly argue that employment creation, private-sector expansion, and long-term economic transformation have been ignored.
De Armas then cited the investments injected into the economy and legislations passed which have contributed to the economic prosperity and development of Guyanese.
“From the historic local content legislation passed in 2021 to fiscal incentives that support housing construction, agriculture, manufacturing, and small businesses, the emphasis on work, income generation, and domestic capacity has been explicit and sustained,” De Armas said.
While the concern for poverty is legitimate and necessary, De Armas said, he cautioned against the debates driven by emotion as opposed to evidence, noting that it risks undermining effective policy.
“If we are serious about reducing poverty, the conversation must begin with honesty about what the data shows, what it does not show, and the time period it actually reflects,” he said.
