APNU Member and Business Executive, Dr. Terrence Campbell, is not impressed with the measures recently announced by President Irfaan Ali to control the foreign currency flow and credit card spending.

Earlier this week, the President announced that there has been a sharp increase in the demand for foreign currency and a noticeable increase in Credit Card transactions.

He noted that the Government has already injected US$1.2 Billion in the system for 2025 to meet the demand, which represents an increase from US$323M in 2024.

The President has announced several measures to tighten the system.

But Dr. Campbell, who will be leading the APNU team into the next Parliament, is placing the blame for the situation squarely at the feet of the Government. He said the massive increase in Government spending is driving the foreign exchange demand, and the Government’s preference for foreign investors has also exacerbated the problem.

“The measures highlighted by the President ignore the impact of the fiscal recklessness of his administration since government spending is responsible for an unhealthy amount of foreign exchange demand.  They also ignore his failure to stop the smuggling of gold.  Further, they demonstrate an inability to plan and develop an export-led non-oil sector.  His government has also prioritized foreign investors over local entrepreneurs.  The bitter harvest of their profit taking is also now upon us.  The proposed measures are bureaucratic and threaten to take Guyana, now a petrostate, back to the dark days of foreign exchange controls in the 70s and the 80s.  This is likely to reduce confidence in the currency and increase capital flight”, Campbell said in a release to the media.

He also believes gold smuggling to be a major contributor to the problem.

The businessman said the expectation of investors before 2020 was for the Guyana dollar to appreciate but today, there is a real possibility of the devaluation of the currency.

He said a closer examination of the President’s recommendations suggests an absence of proper analysis of the problem and a reflexive default to currency controls, which is bound to fail.

He described the measures as cosmetic and said they will do nothing to ease the pressures on the Guyana dollar.

Dr. Campbell said the measures to review credit card spending also seem to not be well thought out.

“There are many reasons why people use personal cards for business.  These include the accumulation of loyalty points and so on. Transferring business purchases from a personal card to a business card will not alter the demand for currency.  Additionally, it will make life difficult for small entrepreneurs who must now face the scrutiny of notoriously difficult local bankers when they apply for business cards”, Campbell stated.

Related posts:

Government introduces measures to monitor foreign currency flow and credit card spending with commercial banks Bank of Guyana injects US$80M in Commercial Banks to stem foreign currency shortage President assures “no foreign currency shortage” in Guyana No shortage of foreign currency in Guyana -Bank of Guyana and Finance Ministry