Guyana’s economy has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past six years, moving from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and the first year of oil production into a period of exceptionally rapid expansion
Speaking at an event marking the 57th anniversary of the National Insurance Scheme, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh pointed to the pace of economic expansion and said the country is expected to continue recording strong growth through the remainder of the decade.
In 2020, Guyana’s real economy grew by 43.5 percent, largely because oil production began while the non-oil economy contracted by 7.3 percent amid the pandemic. Growth then reached 20.1 percent in 2021, 63.3 percent in 2022, 33.8 percent in 2023, 43.8 percent in 2024 and 19.3 percent in 2025, according to the Bureau of Statistics.
The pattern changed sharply once oil production accelerated.
The 2026 Mid-Year Report estimates that real GDP expanded by 33.3 percent during the first half of this year, while the non-oil economy grew by 10.1 percent.
The full-year forecast has now been revised upward to 20.8 percent for overall real GDP, while non-oil growth is projected at 10.2 percent.
Singh told the NIS anniversary gathering that the pace of growth should remain unusually strong through the rest of the decade, although the rate is expected to moderate as the economy grows from a much larger base.
“There are extraordinary rates of economic growth projected to continue well through the rest of the current decade,” he said.
That moderation is already visible in longer-term projections.
The International Monetary Fund has said Guyana’s economy is expected to continue expanding rapidly over the medium term, with non-oil growth averaging about 7 percent annually over the next five years. The Fund expects the oil sector to continue driving expansion as additional production comes on stream, while infrastructure investment and private-sector activity support growth outside oil.
That means the next phase of Guyana’s economic story is unlikely to resemble the explosive growth rates recorded during the initial expansion of oil production.
Instead, the country is moving towards a period in which the size of the economy itself becomes increasingly important.
Singh said the growth of the past five years has already had a significant effect on employment.
From the end of 2020 to the end of 2025, he said, the economy created more than 156,000 additional jobs.
The expansion is also reflected in the National Insurance Scheme, whose contributor base has grown by nearly 80,000 people over the same period, representing an increase of almost 41 percent.
Those figures provide a different measure of the economic transformation: not simply how much the economy is producing, but how many more people are participating in formal and self-employed economic activity.
The 2026 Mid-Year Report shows that growth is still heavily influenced by oil. The oil and gas sector expanded by 41.3 percent in the first half of the year and is projected to grow by 24.2 percent for the full year.
But several non-oil areas are also expanding rapidly.
Construction grew by 24.7 percent in the first half and is projected to expand by 27.6 percent for the year. Other mining and quarrying grew by 40 percent in the first half, while services expanded by 7.2 percent.
There are also weaker areas.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing contracted by 0.5 percent during the first half, while manufacturing grew by 3 percent. The Mid-Year Report attributes the agricultural contraction largely to above-normal rainfall.
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