Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh defended the government’s management of the country’s oil-fuelled economic boom during a BBC World Service panel discussion, aired Saturday, saying rapid growth has already created jobs and opportunities while laying the groundwork for long-term prosperity.
Speaking on the programme BBC World Questions, recorded before a live audience in Georgetown during the week, Dr Singh responded to concerns that the benefits of the country’s booming economy were not being widely felt, particularly amid rising living costs.
Guyana has become the world’s fastest-growing economy since major offshore oil discoveries were made nearly a decade ago. Oil production reached about 900,000 barrels per day in 2025, driving rapid expansion and large government revenues.
The BBC programme brought together a panel including Singh, opposition lawmaker Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, business executive Clinton Urling, and entrepreneur Ayodelle Dalghetti-Dean to debate how Guyana should manage its oil-driven transformation.
Sarabo-Halley stated that “the people across Guyana are not really feeling all of this wealth that is coming in.”
She said while the economy is growing, that only sounds good “on paper” but if “can’t feel it in their pockets and feel it in their daily…then I think we have a problem that we really need to solve.”
Dr Singh acknowledged that managing the windfall from oil required careful balancing between meeting immediate expectations and securing long-term stability.
“The reality is that the Guyanese economy has been growing at a pace that has never been seen before,” Singh said, noting that the country recorded average real economic growth of about 36% per year between 2021 and 2025.
He said the government’s strategy was aimed at improving living standards quickly while ensuring sustainable development.
“The first is to improve the lives of all of the Guyanese people in a tangible way in the shortest possible time,” Singh said.
“But at the same time we have to ensure that we protect the resilience of our economy and invest in the things that matter for long-term competitiveness and prosperity.”
Urling, who serves as Secretary of the Private Sector Commission, said the challenge for Guyana’s politicians is “to ensure that we have some mechanisms in place where those funds or the revenues that are being generated are equitably distributed or redistributed to the most vulnerable in our society so that there’s prosperity and progress for the majority of Guyanese….”
He said the main challenges facing the country is inequality and poverty.
Dalghetti-Dean, part of a women-led company seeking to get into oil exploration, noted that Guyana is “really, really going through a boom and lots of people are seeing the boom.” But she said the growth “only becomes meaningful when people actually feel safe, when they feel included, and when they can actually build out a future.”
“We need infrastructure, and we are enjoying the roads, the bridges, the hospitals, but we also need stronger systems that protect people,” she stated.
The finance minister rejected suggestions that economic progress had not reached ordinary citizens, citing job creation and expanded access to assets.
According to the minister, more than 104,000 new jobs have been created in the past five years, a significant figure in a country of roughly one million people. He said the expansion of economic activity had also generated opportunities for entrepreneurs and skilled professionals.
“In addition to job creation, we’ve allocated land to more than 50,000 Guyanese who now own a plot of land,” Singh said, adding that rising incomes had also allowed thousands of households to purchase vehicles each year.
The oil sector itself has created new high-skill employment, he said, with about 6,000 Guyanese now working directly in the industry, including engineers and technical specialists.
Singh said the government was also mindful of international experience with resource-rich economies and had moved quickly to establish a sovereign wealth fund to manage oil revenues transparently and ensure long-term national benefit.
Despite the government’s measures, some audience members argued that economic gains were unevenly distributed, particularly outside major urban centres, and called for stronger governance, transparency and investment in social services.
The post Guyana’s rapid economic growth must balance immediate benefits with long-term stability: Finance minister appeared first on News Room Guyana.
