There is a group of anti-PPP Government naysayers who would celebrate if Guyana was taken over by the oil curse or by the Dutch disease. There are international players who also would like this to happen so that they can say “we told you so”. In the case of the international naysayers, they come from that group who think that the developing world is incapable of managing their development. These are people who believe that the underdevelopment in the Global South is because we are all corrupt and incompetent. In part, that has to do with racism. The local anti-PPP Government naysayers embrace this international group as convenient allies.
A recent Bloomberg article opined that Guyana, rich with oil money, is trapped in a “resource curse”. The Bloomberg article comes from the group who believe that it is impossible for developing countries like Guyana to utilise our resources in a manner that leads to overall development. In their eyes, all resources from our natural resources are bound to be squandered. It is why the Dutch disease or resource curse only applies to developing countries; it never applies to the developed world. For the developed world, their natural resource is a blessing; for developing countries like Guyana, our natural resource is a “curse”.
Bloomberg and others of their ilk internationally find strong allies in the Opposition parties of Guyana and the usual suspect, the small anti-PPP Government cabal. These are people who go to bed every night praying that Guyana will fail, that Guyana will be consumed by the “resource curse”, the “oil curse”, or the “Dutch Disease”.
This was the mindset that drove some of the local anti-PPP Government naysayers in 2020 and afterwards to demand Guyana stop oil production, arguing that Guyana is being morally bankrupt by helping to propel climate change, etc. For them, it is better that Guyana remains poor forever. These same local naysayers now want Guyana to waive its right to mine for uranium, making the same argument that mining for uranium will destroy the environment.
After more than five years in Government, President Irfaan Ali and his PPP Government have steered Guyana forward with one of the most exciting development transformations that have been seen this century so far. Guyana is the fastest-growing economy in the world right now, with a GDP growth of almost 20 per cent in 2025. In fact, Guyana has held this title for the last five years. It has moved from a low middle-income country to a high-income country.
In contrast to Bloomberg’s conclusion that Guyana is trapped in a resource curse, the IDB’s latest report on Guyana speaks of a total transformation, praising Guyana for policies and programmes that have placed Guyana on economically sound ground. Following a GDP growth of more than 43 per cent in 2024, GDP growth in 2025 was 19.3 per cent, and it is expected to maintain similarly high GDP growth rates for several more years, at least until 2030. But as impressive as these growth rates are, the non-oil GDP tells a more impressive story. The non-oil economy grew in 2025 by about 15 per cent, is expected to grow at a similar rate in 2026 and has been steadily increasing since 2020 at double-digit rates.
This is the same economy that could not increase outside of the range of two per cent to six per cent since the 1990s, and which grew at negative rates for the whole of the 1980s. Clearly, as the IDB has reported, the oil resources have been effectively utilised to propel the traditional economy. Not only has the traditional economy improved, but the non-oil economy has considerably expanded. Manufacturing and the service industry have grown, a fledgling orange economy is taking hold, and small and medium-sized enterprises are sprouting every single day.
With Guyana’s oil now producing near one million barrels per day, and with Guyana’s 50 per cent profit share and two per cent royalty growing from about 14.5 per cent to about 40 per cent of the total oil revenues, the transformation of the economy, Guyana’s infrastructure and people’s lifestyle are set to become one of the globally remarkable achievements of the 21st century.
There is a reason why more than 10,000 additional vehicles are added to the roadways every eight weeks at the moment, why thousands of Guyanese families are building new homes, why thousands of SMEs are established every year, and why energy consumption has risen from less than 100MW to more than 246MW.
It is not just about the GDP; it is that Guyana is expanding education and training to reach citizens everywhere. Guyana today is one of only a handful of countries that can say it provides universal access to primary and secondary education. In the 1990s, UG had fewer than 2000 students. That reached about 7,000 in 2010 and stayed around that in 2020. It is likely that the 2026-2027 student population at UG will be about 15,000. More students are registered in engineering, medicine, and legal education than ever before. There are more and better hospitals and health centres. For the first time, patients in the public sector have access to free MRIs at GPHC. For the first time, CT is accessible to patients in at least 10 public hospitals and expected to be in at least 15 of these hospitals by 2030.
As part of the people-centred development, Guyana is experiencing an unprecedented housing and construction boom. More than 50,000 house lots have been distributed to Guyanese families in the last five years, and another 30,000 house lots are expected to be distributed by 2030. In addition, almost all streets and roads in every housing scheme, old and new ones, have been upgraded. Recreation grounds are being rehabilitated and upgraded, with floodlights in many of them. President Irfaan Ali is personally spearheading a modernising community project, with convenience and security as foundations. This is not a country that is trapped in a resource curse, as Bloomberg and local naysayers want us to believe.