Finance Minister assures economy built for resilience amid oil price volatility

As global oil prices trend downward, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh has assured that Guyana’s macroeconomic framework has been deliberately designed to withstand fluctuations in international commodity markets.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event on Tuesday, Dr Singh said that even as Guyana expands as a major oil producer, the government has placed resilience at the centre of its economic planning. His remarks follow public questions about whether falling oil prices could affect the national public investment programme.

Dr Singh noted that despite Guyana’s rapid economic transformation, it remains a small, open economy operating within a highly dynamic global trading system.

“We operate as part of a global trading system and we continue to be a small open economy, notwithstanding that we have been growing and doing very well in a very large and dynamic global economic and trading space,” he said.

“Primary commodities are a significant contributor to our economic activity, so we are operating in an environment where there will be commodity price movement and volatility. We keep a close eye on external market developments.”

The minister said government planners continuously monitor global conditions, dedicating full sections of the national budget and the mid-year report to international trends and risk assessments.

He emphasised that economic resilience has long been a core principle of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)’s approach to managing the economy.

“The entire policy framework that we have articulated is built and designed to ensure that we are resilient to movements in oil prices,” he said.

“As an oil-producing country, we would like for oil prices to remain strong, but we have been careful as a government to build a macroeconomic structure that is extremely resilient and can withstand movement in oil prices.”

Dr Singh reiterated that the government has never based its fiscal planning on expectations of consistently high crude prices.

“You cannot build a macroeconomic framework on the assumption that oil will always be $98 or $100 a barrel forever,” he said.

Turning to the long-awaited national census report, Dr Singh said finalising the data remains a priority for him.