(See Full Press Statement by the Office of the Leader of the Opposition – 09-08-2024) For any government to be taken seriously when it talks about its economic policy, it must at minimum know the unemployment and inflation rates. Policymakers, central bankers, international agencies, and the media monitor these key data points closely, to help evaluate the health of an economy, the effectiveness of economic policymaking, and the well-being of people.
However, the PPP operates in its own world. It does not calculate, let alone publish, official unemployment figures, and its inflation numbers are highly suspect. Even now, the government clings to pronouncements about 2% inflation in 2023 (which means it believes prices did not change significantly all last year), whereas the IMF and US government numbers for Guyana (of 4.5% and 6.6% respectively) are far higher.
When therefore the President said recently that the PPP had done “a lot” to cushion the cost of living, he was talking purely about input measures (how much money the government spent) but was completely ignorant of whether those expenditures had any impact on the unemployment and inflation rates (the so-called Misery Index). The PPP does not care to know if these rates keep increasing. Its only concern is to try to mislead the Guyanese public that cost of living is under control because the government has spent so much money here and there. But, as we said at a previous press conference, the President and his Vice President should sit in the kitchens of ordinary Guyanese families to face the harsh realities.
The government tries to confuse the Guyanese people in another way. Even if we assume inflation has been tamed, it still means that the cost of living remains high from previous spikes in inflation since 2020. Moreover, if income levels have effectively stagnated, as they have since 2020, then Guyanese will still struggle to make ends meet, as they are today.
On the question of the country’s non-existent unemployment figures, the government is unable to determine what effect its spending is having on Guyanese’s access to an income. If money is being spent but it’s not generating jobs that Guyanese can fill, then clearly they will not be able to weather this cost of living crisis. The large expenditure on infrastructure, for instance, is not creating a proportional number of jobs across the country because, as admitted by Vice President Jadgeo, a lot of contracts are going only to a small network of friends, families and favorites. The multiple delayed school rebuilding projects, from Linden to Georgetown, road works like Cemetery Road, Conversation Tree and Thomas Lands and pump contracts where little to no work has been done also compound the unemployment situation as workers are often sent home by contractors.
President Ali does not know the effect of his government’s policies, and he and his propaganda cannot change that reality. Only totalitarian regimes, regimes that seek to manipulate and control the public, hide unemployment and inflation numbers. We must not let the PPP get away with normalizing governance that is anything but normal. Factual inflation numbers must return to government statements and publications and regular monitoring of the unemployment rate must resume. What is happening in Guyana is bizarre, and only a kleptocratic government would be comfortable driving the Guyanese economy on with no idea where it is heading.
