The APNU+AFC government spent $1.2 trillion between 2015 and 2019 while gathering revenues totaling $992 billion, according to Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for finance, Dr Ashni Singh.
In an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Singh said this translated into an aggregate fiscal deficit of $130b over the period.
Singh described the state of public finances inherited from the APNU+AFC government as “nothing short of disastrous”.
He told DPI that despite the huge revenue collection, the Government utilized these funds in an unproductive manner through wasteful and inefficient expenditure.
On the subject of external debt, the Minister said that the previous government had contracted new external debt of US$400 million during their five years in office.
On domestic financing, DPI said in a release yesterday that Singh stated that when the PPP/C demitted office in 2015, Government had left a net deposit at the Central Bank of $16 billion. He said that the new Government is now burdened with a net overdraft of $93 billion at the Central Bank. According to DPI, he said that if this overdraft is counted as domestic debt it would result in an effective breach of the domestic debt ceiling.
In addition to this, Government is also currently faced with the $30 billion NICIL bond of which $17 billion has been drawn down, and a whopping $12 billion owed to the Guyana Power and Light by government entities, including $7 billion owed to the utility by the Guyana Water Incorporated.