‘Borrowing is a Must’ – Guyana Finance Minister Tells Energy Conference

Feb 26, 2025 News

…says government is doing so responsibly

Kaieteur News- Borrowing money is key to a country’s economic growth, Guyana’s Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh told attendees at the recently concluded Energy Conference in Guyana.

‘Borrowing is a Must’ – Guyana Finance Minister Tells Energy Conference

Guyana’s Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh

Minister Singh emphasized that the government is engaging in borrowing responsibly while maintaining fiscal sustainability. The minister also pointed out that the country’s Natural Resource Fund (NRF) holds enough money to clear Guyana’s external debt.

“All of you are in business, you know that you don’t build a business, you don’t build a country, you don’t build household wealth by saying, ‘I’m not going to borrow a single dollar,’” the minister stated.

He continued, “I don’t think there’s anybody in the room here who has ever built anything without borrowing. I don’t believe any of us. There are very few of us who will buy our first home without borrowing, or even our first car. There are very few of us who will build a business without borrowing, and there’s certainly scarcely a country that I can think of that has not contracted debt. But we must do so in a sustainable manner.”

Highlighting Guyana’s fiscal responsibility, the minister referenced data on the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio, which he said had significantly improved over the years.

“You have in Guyana, and you have in this government led by President Irfaan Ali, a country and a government that has a long track record of responsible economic management,” he stated.

Dr Singh outlined that Guyana’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 24.3% at the end of 2024, making it the second lowest in the Western Hemisphere. “Long before oil was discovered, Guyana’s debt-to-GDP ratio was already brought down to 38.7%. Today, Guyana’s debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 24.3%, the second lowest in the entire Western Hemisphere,” he said.

Providing a breakdown of the country’s external debt, the minister pointed out that at the end of 2024, the external debt stood at just over US$2.2 billion. “At the end of 2024, our external debt is just over US$2 billion. In 1992, our external debt was more than US$2 billion, but if you looked at the size of our economy, our economy today is more than 40 times the size of our economy in 1992,” Dr Singh stated.

To this end, he noted that Guyana’s NRF had amassed a substantial balance by the end of 2024.

“At the end of 2024, we had saved in our Natural Resource Fund, parked safely and being managed prudently and being overseen by a very responsible Board of Directors, US$3.1 billion. What does that mean? What that means, essentially, is that we have enough money in the Natural Resource Fund to pay off our country’s entire external debt and still have more than half a billion US dollars left,” the senior minister said.

While highlighting the government’s fiscal discipline and strategic approach to debt management, the minister reiterated that Guyana is on a sustainable economic trajectory.

Even though the minister made the point of the availability of funds in the NRF, it should be noted that the government plans to withdraw US$2.5 billion to support its US$6.6 billion budget for 2025. At the end of 2024, Guyana’s overall debt had grown to nearly US$6 billion, standing at US$5.9 billion.

‘Borrowing is a Must’ – Guyana Finance Minister Tells Energy Conference)

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