About 40 percent of Guyana’s $1.146 trillion budget, unveiled on Monday, will be financed by external loans. The remainder will come from the country’s revenues. Making this disclosure on Thursday was Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo during a press conference at the Office of the President.
The politician explained that while Guyanese authorities will be moving to the National Assembly soon to increase the debt ceiling, for a third time, as well as revising the withdrawal rules for the Natural Resource Fund, the country’s debt profile will remain at a sustainable level.
“So are we worsening our debt profile? The answer is a resounding no,” the vice president said. He also explained to reporters that at the end of 2023, the stock of public debt was US$4.5 billion, of which US$1.8 billion is external debt. The vice president said this is a substantial improvement over the times of the 1990s when Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product was approximately US$300 million while carrying an external debt totaling US$2.1 billion.
“Today, we have a US$22 billion economy and our external debt is US$1.8 billion…so it is lower than the position of debt we had in the 90s when our economy was 60 odd times smaller than what it is today.
“So the fact of the matter is that in spite of our borrowing over this period, our stock of debt to the external world is still significantly low…,” the Vice President explained.
Overall, the chief policymaker maintained that Guyana has one of the lowest debt-to-GDP ratios while assuring that increasing the debt ceiling will not harm this achievement.
