Dear Editor,
The recent commentary by another pro-PPP advocate Dr. Tara Singh (12/24/25) defending the government’s poverty reduction record is a masterclass in “statistical airbrushing.” and an often—used textbook tactic to cloak a clear and present crisis. While the writer attempts to dismiss international data from the IADB and World Bank as outdated or “pandemic-influenced,” he offered no credible, verified data to replace it—relying instead on anecdotes, innuendos and the opinions of party acolytes. I am sure the good doctor knows better than to rely on Mr. De Armas and Mr. Shuman as authorities on statistical data.
Editor, if we are to have a serious debate about Guyana’s future, we must look at the facts that were conveniently omitted by critiquing the willful omissions and dispel any attempts to distort the reality.
The writer claimed that current unemployment is under 6% and labour participation is over 60%, suggesting the IADB’s 2021 data (showing 58% poverty) is obsolete. However, World Bank and ILO modeled estimates for 2024 still places Guyana’s unemployment at 10.16%—nearly double the writer’s claim. More critically, “employment” does not equate to “escape from poverty.” In a country where the cost of a basic food basket has surged (with food inflation hitting 7.5% in the last 12 months alone), a minimum-wage job is often a pathway to “working poverty,” not wealth.
The writer’s defense of the government’s “empowerment” strategy is built on a foundation of guesswork because the 2022 Population and Housing Census remains under lock and key. It is a profound irony to claim poverty is declining while withholding the very data that would prove it. As the World Bank noted in April 2025, the lack of recent data “limits the effectiveness of public policies.” One must ask: if the numbers were truly “beautiful,” why aren’t they being shouted from the rooftops?
The writer proudly notes that Guyana is now a “high-income country,” necessitating a higher poverty threshold of US$6.85 per day. But being a high-income nation with 32% extreme poverty (as per the IADB 2024 working paper) is not a success; it is a failure of distribution.
• While GDP growth is in the double digits, the Public Service Union notes that a dignified “living wage” is calculated at roughly GY$215,000, yet the minimum wage remains stuck at GY$60,147.
• Growth is concentrated in capital-intensive oil sectors, while the “pockets of poverty” the writer admits exist—in squatter settlements and the hinterland—are being left behind by an “empowerment” strategy that favours those already positioned to navigate the bureaucracy of grants and credit.
The writer suggests that those who remain poor choose not to work. This is a classic “blame the victim” narrative. It ignores the structural reality that 72% of the world’s population in extreme poverty live in countries where growth is not inclusive. In Guyana, if a business leader has 100 vacancies but cannot fill them, it is a market signal: the wages offered do not meet the cost of survival in 2025.
The Bottom Line
We cannot “empower” our way out of a cost-of-living crisis with technical training alone. Poverty reduction requires a transparent, data-driven national plan—not the withholding of census data and the dismissal of international reports. To suggest that poverty elimination is “unrealistic” while the nation sits on one of the world’s largest oil reserves is the ultimate deception.
It is time to stop the guesswork. Release the Census. Respect the Data. End the Obfuscation.