Guyana’s Billions in Oil Wealth Fail to Guarantee Better Living Standards, WIN’s Primus Says

Guyana has collected billions of US dollars in oil revenues since commercial petroleum production began, yet the country’s extraordinary economic expansion has not erased concerns about poverty, affordability and the quality of life of ordinary citizens, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) General Secretary and Member of Parliament Odessa Primus warned on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference on October 26, Primus challenged the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s economic success narrative, pointing to figures attributed to a 2025 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report which put poverty at 58 per cent of the population and abject poverty at 32 per cent. Local analysts believe the figure to be higher.

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Billions earned, but questions remain