Guyanese Poet Martin Carter wrote decades ago, ‘This is the dark time’. It was art imitating life, yet words with real meaning today as there are whispers that Guyana, with its nascent Oil & Gas economy, is afflicted mortally by the dreaded ‘Resource Curse’. The internet informs us that this is the paradox of plenty or the poverty paradox. ‘It is the phenomenon of countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals) having less economic growth, less democracy, or worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources.’
The PPP regime recently announced a huge hike in fuel prices. Just after that news, the National Milling Company of Guyana Inc. (NAMILCO) announced a hike in the price of flour. Guyanese already bore a 14% increase in basic foot items, according to the 2021 mid-year economic reports. There was also an inflation rate pegged at 5.6% at that time. Economist and Shadow Finance Minister Juretha Fernandes predicts it will hit 11% by the end of 2022.
The freefall of the Guyanese economy would explain the recent sad scenes of Warraus in Mabaruma, Region 1 – Barima Waini, foraging at a garbage site for whatever could be salvaged for consumption, in the year of the country’s “Biggest Budget Ever”. On the same day this was making waves on Social Media, taxi drivers on the Corentyne in Berbice were picketing to increase the price of fares and rice farmers were protesting the decrease in paddy price from local millers.
