BUDGET 2026: Greater non-oil growth last year – Finance Minister 

As he delved into the presentation of the 2026 National Budget, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh reported that Guyana’s non-oil economy grew by 14.3% last year while the overall economy expanded by 19.3%. 

“Growth in the non-oil economy was driven largely by agriculture, mining, construction, and services,” Dr Singh told lawmakers in the National Assembly on Monday. 

In 2024, Guyana’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 43.6%; non-oil growth was 13.1%. Real GDP is an inflation-adjusted measure that reflects the value of all goods and services produced by an economy (in this case, Guyana’s economy) in a given year. In simpler terms, the real GDP measures a country’s total economic output, adjusted for price changes.

The expansion of Guyana’s GDP over the past several years has been largely attributed to the burgeoning oil and gas sector. However, Dr Singh said diversification efforts heralded in by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) government led to substantial non-oil growth. 

The Finance Minister shared some of the sectoral highlights, including: 

• Agriculture, forestry & fishing – grew by 11.5%

Within this overall sector, Dr Singh said the sugar-growing subsector grew by 26.5%, even as production was hampered by heavy rainfall, labour shortages, and low employee turnout. The rice-growing subsector expanded by 15.7%.

• Mining and quarrying subsector – grew by 21% 
• Oil and gas subsector – grew y 21% 
• Gold mining subsector- grew by 11.6% 
• Bauxite mining subsector – grew by 53.4% 
• Other mining subsector – grew by 28.9% 
• Diamond declarations- declined by 24.2%
• Manufacturing – grew by 20% 
• Construction – grew by 31% 

With the growth recorded, Dr Singh said inflation stood at about 2.5% at the end of 2025. That was driven primarily by food prices, which rose by 4.4%.