Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) Leader and lone parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir has rejected President Irfaan Ali’s suggestion that changing eating and shopping habits are contributing significantly to Guyana’s cost-of-living crisis, arguing that rising prices for basic necessities are placing households under increasing financial pressure.
In a statement issued Saturday, August 22, Walton-Desir responded to Ali’s comments at his August 18 press conference, where the President cited increased supermarket shopping, dining out and reduced home cooking among factors that need to be addressed.
Ali said more Guyanese are now purchasing items such as plantains, cassava and sweet potatoes from supermarkets rather than traditional markets, where he argued prices and profit margins can be lower. He also pointed to increased restaurant spending and less cooking at home.
Walton-Desir said the cost-of-living crisis cannot be explained by changes in consumer behaviour.
“Guyanese families are not struggling because we have suddenly become extravagant. We are struggling because the cost of food, rent, electricity, transportation, medication and other basic necessities has risen beyond the reach of ordinary incomes.”
She said even if consumption patterns have changed, that does not explain the continued increase in prices for essential goods and services.
“Even if consumption patterns have changed, that does not explain why the prices of essential goods and services continue to rise. In May 2026, the Consumer Price Index rose by 2.4 per cent in a single month.”
Statistics Guyana reported a 2.4 per cent increase in the Consumer Price Index in May 2026, followed by another 1.2 per cent increase in June, indicating continued upward pressure on prices.
Walton-Desir said Ali has himself acknowledged several structural factors contributing to the cost-of-living pressures, including imported inflation, international energy prices, fertiliser costs and high retailer mark-ups.
“These are structural economic problems which require decisive government action to protect citizens from their worst effects, not blame shifting.”
Ali has also pointed to excessive retailer mark-ups as part of the problem and proposed the possible establishment of permanent farmers’ markets to bring producers and consumers closer together.
Walton-Desir said farmers’ markets could have a role, but argued that Government must also strengthen market monitoring, consumer protection and competition policy while investing in transportation and storage infrastructure.
“Simply identifying excessive markups while attributing the wider cost of living crisis to citizens’ shopping and eating habits is an absurdly poor policy response.”
Her statement comes against the backdrop of Guyana’s dramatic economic transformation since the start of commercial oil production in December 2019. Petroleum revenues have substantially increased Government’s fiscal resources and helped propel Guyana into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Since first oil, Guyana has earned roughly US$9.7 billion in cumulative petroleum revenues, including profit oil, royalties and signature bonuses.
Yet the expansion of national wealth has not ended concerns about poverty and household affordability. An Inter-American Development Bank report has been cited as estimating that about 58 per cent of Guyana’s population lives in poverty, while 32 per cent faces abject poverty. Local analysts have argued that the actual situation could be worse because of weaknesses in data collection and concerns about people’s willingness to disclose their circumstances because of fear of political repercussions.
Walton-Desir said the difficulties facing households should not be characterised as a cultural problem or blamed on citizens’ lifestyle choices.
“Our inability as Guyanese to feed, clothe and house ourselves cannot simply be recast as a ‘cultural issue.’ The cost of living crisis is not the result of some character defect, nor is it caused by citizens forgetting how to cook or choosing the wrong place to shop plantains.”
She said the Government should instead address the structural pressures affecting prices and ensure that wages, pensions and public systems keep pace with the country’s economic transformation.
For Walton-Desir, the central measure of Guyana’s oil-driven development should be whether ordinary citizens can actually afford a decent life.
“Guyanese are not eating their way into poverty. We are being priced out of a decent life.”
The statement places the cost-of-living debate squarely on Government’s response to rising prices and raises a broader question over the distribution of Guyana’s unprecedented oil wealth: how can a country earning billions of dollars in petroleum revenues continue to leave so many households struggling to afford basic necessities?
