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Security & Strategic Review - May 2026
GUYANA/TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: Facing up to a reversal of fortunes
In 2010, at the start of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s first term in power (2010-2015), Trinidad & Tobago had a total GDP of US$22.52bn and GDP per capita GDP of US$16,960, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and on current prices. By contrast, neighbouring Guyana had a total GDP of US$2.89bn and per capita GDP of US$8,850. How things have changed. Newly oil-rich Guyana had a GDP of US$27.1bn in 2025, around nine times the 2010 figure, and GDP per capita of US$81,500. Trinidad, meanwhile, has virtually stagnated, with total GDP growing to just US$25.93bn in 15 years, and GDP per capita to US$18,070. It is Trinidad that is now the junior partner, not just economically but also politically as Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali displays considerably more deftness than the Trinidadian prime minister in navigating between a US administration that demands nothing less than full-hearted support for its policies and Caribbean Community (Caricom) members that are fearful of what President Donald Trump’s ‘might is right’ foreign policy means for the world’s weaker nations.
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