–supports families, Mid-Year Report shows

THE government has moved on multiple fronts this year to contain rising prices and cushion households from their impact, according to its Mid-Year Report 2026.
The response combines direct price controls, record cash transfers, and targeted investment in food production, which is considered the most extensive cost-of-living package the country has deployed to date, spanning everything from a frozen fuel-excise tax and stable utility tariffs to a universal cash grant, expanded farmer subsidies and an overhaul of support for pensioners, students and vulnerable households.
At the centre of the response is a set of direct price-containment measures. The government has maintained a zero per cent excise tax on petroleum products and is working to limit how much of any increase in international fuel prices reaches consumers at the pump.
Electricity and water tariffs are being held stable through direct budgetary support, while officials monitor retail mark-ups and price movements nationwide.
In parallel, the government is working to expand agricultural and food production across all ten administrative regions and has invested in climate-smart farming, shade houses, drainage and irrigation upgrades, water-efficient techniques, and preparation for both drought and excessive rainfall, intended to make the food supply less vulnerable to weather-driven price shocks.
The government has also leaned heavily on direct cash transfers to cushion households from cost-of-living pressures.
The disbursement of a one-off $100,000 grant to every Guyanese aged 18 and over began in March, with $42.5 billion paid out by the middle of the year. School-age children have been targeted through a $60,000 “Because We Care” grant, a $5,000 uniform allowance and a newly introduced $20,000 annual transportation grant, together worth $85,000 per student and reaching more than 206,000 children, while government is also covering CSEC and CAPE examination fees for students sitting up to eight subjects.
Older and more vulnerable Guyanese have seen similar increases: the monthly Old Age Pension rose from $41,000 to $46,000, and monthly Public Assistance rose from $22,000 to $25,000, a payment that includes 30,242 persons living with disabilities.
Pensioners also receive a $20,000 annual transportation allowance, and central government employees continue to benefit from the 8 percent salary increase granted in July 2025.
With food production central to the government’s inflation strategy, farmers have received targeted support of their own. Rice farmers received direct cash subsidies, $15,000 per acre for those farming 50 acres or fewer and $10,000 per acre for larger operations, with roughly $2.8 billion paid to 5,106 farmers covering 234,920 acres.
Farmers hit by excessive rainfall have also received crop-insurance payments, while government has distributed planting materials, fertiliser and certified seeds, and expanded technical assistance, pest management, soil testing and shade-house construction.
A new digital tool, the Farmers Connect application, gives producers access to real-time market prices, weather information, marketing support and extension services, alongside separate investment in livestock, poultry, aquaculture, agro-processing, and drainage and irrigation.
For pensioners specifically, government subsidised $942.5 million in electricity charges and $298.2 million in water charges in the first half of the year.
Students across the public system continue to receive free textbooks, digital learning materials and other classroom resources, alongside meals through the National School Feeding Programme, and tertiary education and vocational training remain free; $175.6 million in University of Guyana student loans was written off for 204 people in the first half of 2026 alone.
On healthcare, the government points to vouchers for eye examinations and spectacles, cervical-cancer screening and general healthcare, along with free prosthetic limbs, free hearing aids and continued public provision of medicines and supplies.
Steel and cement subsidies, foundation-support assistance and construction-advancement subsidies remain available to home-builders, alongside the Yarrowkabra homestead programme. Sixty-five per cent of house lots allocated in the first half of the year went to low- and moderate-income households, and government says construction of low-, moderate- and middle-income homes is ongoing.
Separately, the net property tax on individuals has been abolished, effective from the 2026 year of assessment.
The mid-year data suggests the strategy is having some effect, even if the picture is not uniform. Guyana’s 12-month inflation rate eased to 4.0 per cent in June 2026, down from 4.2 per cent a year earlier.
Consumer prices nonetheless rose 4.4 per cent in the first half of the year alone, driven overwhelmingly by food, which climbed 6.7 per cent and added 3.4 percentage points to the total; vegetables and vegetable products were the single biggest contributor, adding 2.5 percentage points as heavy rainfall disrupted local crops.
On a 12-month basis, food contributed 2.7 percentage points to the 4.0 per cent rate — vegetables again the largest single factor (1.4 percentage points), followed by meat, fish and eggs (0.5 percentage point) and prepared meals and refreshments (0.3 percentage point) — while energy added just 0.7 percentage point, a figure the government credits to the fuel-excise freeze and its efforts to limit the pass-through of international price increases.
The 12-month trend, combined with the scale of direct support now reaching households, from the universal cash grant to farmer subsidies and pensioner relief, shows the response is outpacing the problem, and the same measures are expected to remain in place through the rest of the year.