LatinNews Daily - 27 January 2026

*Guyana’s People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government led by President Irfaan Ali has unveiled its proposed budget for 2026 for G$1.6tn (US$7.6bn). Unveiling the budget before the 65-member national assembly, in which the PPP/C has a majority, Finance Minister Ashni Singh said that it represents a 307% rise on the G$383.1bn budget presented in 2021, Ali’s first full year in office. Singh said that this comes against “a backdrop of strong economic performance” in the country, where the discovery of oil in 2015 led to an unrivalled surge in national wealth. Singh said that the economy expanded by 19.3% in 2025, while the non-oil economy grew by 14.3%, reflecting “broad-based growth across all sectors”. As regards a breakdown of spending, G$183.6bn has been allocated for education and G$161.1bn for health, according to the report from the department of public information (DPI). Singh said that G$113.2bn had been budgeted to strengthen food security and rural livelihoods and to further develop the agriculture sector, with G$159.1bn allocated to advance the government’s housing drive. According to the same report, infrastructure development “continues at scale”, with G$196.1bn allocated for the expansion and rehabilitation of the roads and bridges. It also highlights that G$119.4bn has been assigned to “lower electricity costs, enhance reliability, and promote industrial growth”, as part of the government’s energy transformation.