Guyana debt servicing costs fall as economy continues rapid expansion – IDB report
–Unemployment rate falls from 14.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent
Guyana continues to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and a new report shows the country is improving at managing what it owes.
This is according to the latest Caribbean Economics Quarterly from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Even though Guyana has borrowed money to build roads, schools, and other infrastructure, the amount of government income going toward paying off debt has declined substantially.
Before oil production started, debt payments used to eat up about 7 cents of every dollar the government collected. Now, that figure has dropped to about 5 cents.
“Guyana remains a low-debt case, driven by continued strong resource revenues, making it an outlier within the sample. By contrast, The Bahamas, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago entered 2025 with debt burdens materially higher than in 2019,” the IDB report said.
The job market has also improved significantly. According to the report, back in 2021, about 1 in every 7 working-age Guyanese was unemployed.
By 2024, that number had dropped to fewer than 1 in 14. “Guyana’s unemployment rate fell from 14.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2021 to 6.8 per cent during the same period in 2024,” the IDB report stated.
Guyana’s population has grown too, from around 700,000 people a decade ago to about 900,000 today.
Meanwhile, Guyana’s economy grew by an incredible 19.3 percent in 2025, after growing even faster, 43.8 percent. the year before.
While oil remains the biggest driver, other parts of the economy are picking up steam too. Growth outside the oil sector rose to 15 percent in 2025, up from 13 percent the year before, which is a sign that other industries are also benefiting from the country’s oil wealth.
Experts at the International Monetary Fund expect the growth to continue in a big way, with the economy projected to expand by 16.2 per cent in 2026, 19.7 per cent in 2027 and 22.1 per cent in 2028. After that, growth is expected to slow down to more sustainable levels, 12.8 per cent in 2029, 11.5 per cent in 2030, and just 1.1 per cent in 2031, as oil production stabilises.
