Guyana’s private sector is borrowing and expanding at a pace that suggests rising confidence in the local investment climate, with credit growth accelerating across real estate, agriculture, manufacturing, services and households.
This is according to the country’s Head of State Dr. Irfaan Ali. The Guyanese Leader said credit to the private sector has grown by an accumulated 89.6 per cent, underpinned by significant increases in loans flowing to productive areas of the economy.
He pointed to 95.6 per cent growth in real estate mortgages, 155.6 per cent growth in credit to agriculture, 89.6 per cent growth in credit to manufacturing, 90.4 per cent growth in credit to the services sector, and 67.9 per cent growth in credit to households.
For businesses, more capital is being deployed to acquire assets, scale operations, increase output and hire staff.
“This is not only credit,” Ali said, arguing the trend reflects “jobs being created, businesses being created, and opportunities being fulfilled and pursued by Guyanese.”
According to the Guyanese President, the surge is a sign that dormant funds in the financial system are increasingly being channelled into real economic activity, with companies and households using borrowing to move from planning to execution.
“They are converting idle liquidity in the financial system into productive economic activity,” he said.
The administration is also pointing to housing as a major driver of wealth creation and demand, with mortgage expansion feeding construction activity and related industries, from building materials and logistics to professional services.
Ali said the government has been “opening doors for existing and new businesses,” positioning access to financing as part of a broader ecosystem for private-sector-led growth.
On the entrepreneurship side, he highlighted the reach of small-business grant programmes, noting that more than 50 per cent of the beneficiaries were women: a statistic he said demonstrates how targeted initiatives can broaden participation in the economy.
“These statistics tell a powerful story,” Ali said, describing a pathway toward “economic empowerment and inclusive development,” while signalling that the next five years will focus on deepening private sector opportunity “with even more ambitious transformations.”
