Guyana’s government just tabled a massive TRILLION dollar national budget for 2024… I’ll give you one guess how they’re planning to afford that.

So Guyana’s government just approved the country’s largest ever national budget of GUY$1.1 trillion. That’s roughly US$5.5 billion.

For context, Jamaica’s budget last year was about US$6.4 billion.  So Guyana has about one-third the population of Jamaica, but they’re preparing to spend almost as much as Jamaica.

This is the largest budget in Guyana’s history and is almost double the country’s budget from 2023.

So whenever we hear these big budget numbers, the first question is always – where’s the money coming from?

Well, the government was quick to highlight that there will be no new taxes, so that’s a relief. 

According to the budget, roughly 29% of the government’s spending will be funded by the country’s ever-growing oil revenue. 

In 2023, Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund, which is like the country’s bank account for oil money, received almost US$2 billion from oil-related activities, including royalties and profit from oil sales.

And remember, Guyana is projected to become one of the top five oil producers in the world, so their oil revenue is expected to go up each year.

According to the budget, the Government is spending heavily on building out the country’s infrastructure and health care.

The government set aside US$1.1 billion, for public works like road repair and development.

US$646 million is being invested in education. And another US$622 million is budgeted for health.

But the government is kinda walking on a tight rope when it comes to spending.

See the Natural Resource Fund that I mentioned earlier was set up as kinda like a savings account for the country. So that the country doesn’t make all this money from oil and then in 30 years have nothing to show for it. 

One of the fund’s key objectives is to “ensure that volatility in natural resource revenues do not lead to volatile public spending”.

According to the budget, the government plans to spend US$1.1 billion of the money in the fund this year, which doesn’t seem like that much when you think about how much the country is projected to earn.

But a projection is just a projection.  As we know, oil prices can be very up and down. Plus Guyana still has this oil beef with Venezuela to work out.  Who knows how that will affect their revenues. 

So one of the criticisms of the budget is that the Government is doing too much too soon. On the other hand, money was made to be spent right? And developing the country will help to maximise new opportunities. 

So it’s all a delicate balancing act. And that’s the bottom line.