Dear Editor,
According to www.xe.com[1] the Guyana dollar is trading at some GYD210: US$1. Over the last five years the Guyana dollar has been slowly depreciating. And, there has been claims of shortages of US dollar in the local banks and cambios. This situation is “remarkable” given Guyana is now blessed with oil revenues which is stored in the NRF in the USA.
Clearly, there is a need to let the Guyana Dollar appreciate to GYD200: US$1 by, as an example, flooding the local financial institutions with about US$500m from the NRF. The only people who really benefits from a depreciating Guyana dollar are those who took out big loans/mortgages in GYD. This includes the Government who continues to rely heavily on debt financing for development.
The way things in Guyana seems to be going at the moment is a continuation of the cost of living spiral crisis as the Guyana dollar continues to depreciate leading to the need to push up wages leading to an increase in prices everywhere leading to more depreciation of the Guyana dollar. By not tackling the cost of living crisis head-on the PPP/C Government of Guyana is looking heartless.