Stabroek News spoke to members of the public in Perth village, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara about the rising cost of living and how it is affecting them. The following are their comments:
Interviews and photos by Subhana Shiwmangal
Devon Thomas, a 62-year-old missionary said: “I think the thing that is affecting Guyana is the valuation of the dollar. I’m living alone and the cost of living is not affecting me much because there is the home garden and so forth, I can eat from. When you have your produce, you can buy less. The cost of living is an economic crisis, it is something that affects everyone around the world. When you look at the economic crisis around the world, in America the dollar continues to depreciate and when this happens, people kind of lose trust in the dollar. Also, that’s why sometimes people leave Guyana and go to other countries. They don’t trust the dollar anymore because the value is reducing and while the dollar is going down, the cost-of-living raises. Now, what people doing is when they receive their salary, instead of leaving it in the bank, they withdraw it and buy items for the home because when the money is left in the bank, the money depreciates because the bank takes out interest versus the money spent presently on the high cost of living. For example, a bag of Bakewell bread cost $200 a couple months back; now the same bread cost $240. Also, a few months ago, the cost for a big tin of Carnation milk was $500; now the same milk cost $700. The government need to spend less money on roads’ development and focus more on the people in order to subsidize on food items to help the people with the rising cost of living.