A common mistake among leaders of emerging oil-producing nations is to rely heavily on loans to fund development programmes, hoping that oil prices remain high to meet repayment obligations. Unfortunately, the oil and gas industry is inherently volatile.
Countries falling prey to this rookie miscalculation often leave their people with debt that follows them for two to three generations, to their graves. Guyana, with its vast oil and gas resources, dares to be the outlier. Its leaders are adamant about not falling into this debt trap. In fact, the 2025 mid-year report indicates that at the end of 2024, the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 24.3 per cent.
Even at the end of June 2025, when the country signed nine new loan agreements, the country’s total Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) debt amounted to US$6.8 billion. This is equivalent to 27.6 per cent of 2024 GDP. It also makes 2024 the fifth consecutive year the government has kept debt levels at a historic low.
The report further states that total external debt stood at US$2.4 billion at the end of the first half of the year, accounting for 35.1 per cent of total debt stock.
Notably, multilateral creditors constituted the largest share of external debt with 55.8 per cent at half-year, down from 57.6 per cent at end-2024.
Bilateral creditors constituted the second largest share at 37 per cent, up from 35.4 per cent at end-2024. The increase in bilateral share was mainly due to net inflows under two projects: funding from the UK Export Finance, the United Kingdom’s credit agency, for Guyana’s Paediatric and Maternal Hospital Project and funding for Phase 2 of the China Eximbank-financed East Coast Demerara Road Improvement Project.
External debt is projected to rise to US$3.8 billion by the end of the year, on account of anticipated positive net flows across bilateral, multilateral and private creditors.