{"id":388036,"date":"2025-08-31T23:44:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/388036\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T23:44:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:44:17","slug":"oil-money-has-supercharged-guyanas-economy-but-ordinary-people-can-barely-get-by-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/388036\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil money has supercharged Guyana\u2019s economy, but ordinary people can barely get by \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a cautious reluctance among residents of Waiakabra, a small village south of Guyana\u2019s capital, to speak with the media. But once they do, they have a lot to say.<\/p>\n

Much of it doesn\u2019t align with the narrative that Guyana\u2019s oil \u2013 discovered by ExxonMobil<\/a> in 2015 \u2013 has made the country one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with GDP growth of over 43 per cent in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep hearing about this oil, but where is all this money going?\u201d asks Yanick, a 26-year-old landscaper, who says he is struggling to make ends meet. \u201cWe just hear that the government is investing in infrastructure, but you can\u2019t survive on cement and stones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next door, Arleen, a 31-year-old housewife, says the high cost of living has become extremely challenging for her family. \u201cSomeone needs to look into pricing in the shops and provide more support for communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Scelon,Scelon, a 25-year-old barber in Waiakabra, Guyana. Photograph: Joseph O’Connor <\/p>\n

Scelon, who is busy cutting hair in his pop-up barber shop, says his village has been forgotten and the only way to get by is to hustle for extra work. \u201cThe government has to address the cost of living, look into poor neighbourhoods like this one,\u201d he says. \u201cWe just want the country to benefit from the development it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guyanese voters will have their say on government policy on Monday, when presidential and parliamentary elections will decide if president Irfaan Ali\u2019s People\u2019s Progressive Party (PPP) stays in power in the South American country of 830,000 people. <\/p>\n

The PPP is expected to prevail, although opposition parties, including A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change, will hope to benefit from disillusioned voters. <\/p>\n

These voices of frustration are a common theme reported by independent newspaper Stabroek News in its weekly cost-of-living series. By speaking with ordinary Guyanese about their day-to-day costs, the publisher has tapped into a topic at the heart of political debate as voters head to the polls. <\/p>\n

\"AnandAnand Persaud, editor-in-chief of Stabroek News. Photograph: Joseph O’Connor <\/p>\n

Anand Persaud, editor-in-chief of Stabroek News, says the series shows signs that Guyana is experiencing both the \u201cDutch Disease\u201d, whereby a significant increase in a country\u2019s wealth leads to a decline in other sectors, and the \u201cResource Curse\u201d, when a country rich in natural resources has a worse economic outcome than resource-scarce nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is, even though you\u2019re getting richer, people down the bottom are getting poorer,\u201d he says at his newspaper\u2019s offices in Georgetown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing in our cost-of-living series, which is why we\u2019ve been doing it religiously every week. People trying to figure out if they can afford three meals a day, support a disabled family member or find a job. These stories expose this big gulf between an \u2018oil Guyana\u2019 and a \u2018non-oil\u2019 Guyana, and how they\u2019re not really meshing.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Oil not the panacea it appears to be for economies\u2019: Campaigners in Guyana take the fight to ExxonMobilOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Red Thread, a non-governmental women\u2019s grassroots organisation, also sees a stark disconnect between oil wealth and people\u2019s day-to-day living.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe notice that prices in the market have gone sky high,\u201d says Wintress White. \u201cWe find it hard to believe that we\u2019re living in an oil-rich country when people cannot afford to eat. In our last budget, the government announced $1.3 trillion but allocated more funds to infrastructure and roads than to the welfare of people. We find this ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guyana\u2019s 2016 Production Sharing Agreement with ExxonMobil and its partners, granting tax exemptions to the oil companies, has been widely criticised as it deprives the state of significant revenue while ExxonMobil and its partners benefit from tax credits in their home countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is so amazing is that here in Guyana, if a person earns over a certain amount of money, they\u2019re asked to pay tax,\u201d says White. \u201cYet, Exxon and its partners are being granted tax exemptions and they are making so much money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe New Demerara Harbour Bridge, which is under construction in Georgetown. Photograph: Joaquin Sarmiento\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Of course, the oil and gas industry is creating jobs \u2013 there are about 6,200 working directly for or supporting the sector, according to ExxonMobil Guyana. Along with infrastructure investments, such as the creation of a new sustainable city, Silica City, and the construction of a new Demerara Harbour Bridge in the capital, the government is providing a range of cash grants to citizens. It also has announced ambitious increases in public assistance as part of its re-election manifesto. However, many say it\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cCash grants are not necessary,\u201d says Joy Marcus of Red Thread. \u201cWhat is necessary is for the government to improve its services. Once the services are improved, then there\u2019s no need for that cash grant.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Guyana\u2019s high-stakes oil and climate debate – and Ireland\u2019s role in itOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Political scientist Prof Ivelaw Griffith warns against the government putting money in every citizen\u2019s pocket as their cut of the oil money. \u201cIt will have a domino effect on work ethic and inflation in the country,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s a harsh reality and something that is not very comfortable to tell people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffith believes it\u2019s a matter of time before people begin to see the benefits of infrastructure development. \u201cIt can\u2019t be either the individual citizen getting the cash or the society getting infrastructure,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s got to be both. And both take time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For lawyer Melinda Janki, who represents ordinary Guyanese people in bringing public interest litigation against the State of Guyana, ExxonMobil and its partners, the \u201cbooming Guyana\u201d narrative based solely on GDP figures needs to stop, so people can understand the true impact of oil.<\/p>\n

Firstly, because the numbers fail to account for oil revenues going to ExxonMobil and its partners. Secondly, because \u201cit\u2019s an out-of-date measurement\u201d, as evidenced by the World Bank\u2019s Beyond GDP agenda aimed at identifying a better way to measure wealth.<\/p>\n

A survey involving Waiakabra residents might just paint a more accurate picture until the Guyanese people use their vote as their voice on Monday.<\/p>\n

– Additional reporting by Subhana Shiwmangal<\/p>\n

\"SimonSimon Cumbers Media Fund <\/p>\n

– This reporting was supported by the Simon Cumbers Media Fund <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a cautious reluctance among residents of Waiakabra, a small village south of Guyana\u2019s capital, to speak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,44888,4073,285,16,15,115772],"class_list":{"0":"post-388036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-horizontal","11":"tag-illustration","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-vote"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115126040819470711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}