By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — Member of Parliament and Leader of the Forward Guyana Movement, Amanza Walton, has sharply criticized President Dr. Irfaan Ali over recent remarks attributing the cost-of-living crisis to changing consumer behaviors, describing the President’s statements as a “perverse attempt to shift responsibility from the state onto struggling citizens.”
Responding to the Head of State’s press conference assertion that increased dining out, supermarket shopping, and shifting lifestyle patterns are driving up household expenditures, Walton stressed that ordinary Guyanese families are being priced out of basic necessities rather than living extravagantly.
“Priced Out, Not Eating into Poverty”
Walton rejected the executive’s framing of inflation as an issue of domestic consumption habits, pointing out that essential living costs have accelerated across all basic sectors:
- Escalating Living Expenses: Working families are facing sharp increases across rent, electricity, public transportation, prescription medication, and daily groceries.
- Inflationary Pressures: In May 2026 alone, the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded a sharp 2.4 percent increase in a single month.
- Absence of Relief on Local Staples: While the administration has pointed to fertilizer subsidies and cash transfers, Walton noted the absence of targeted interventions to lower the retail costs of domestically produced staples such as sugar, rice, and flour.
“It is not a character flaw in Guyanese… Guyanese are not eating their way into poverty, they are being priced out of a decent life,” MP Amanza Walton declared. “The government’s role is not to blame this on a cultural issue; the government’s role is to make sure that Guyanese are cushioned from these phenomena.”
Failure to Match Oil Economy with Living Wages
The parliamentarian highlighted the contrast between Guyana’s status as a rapidly expanding oil-producing nation and the financial strain felt by average households.
- Income vs. Growth Gap: Walton questioned why an oil-rich state has failed to align public sector wages, old-age pensions, and social safety nets with the rapid expansion of the macro-economy.
- Limits of One-Off Grants: She argued that telling citizens cash grants cannot solve the problem while offering no structural wage adjustments leaves low- and middle-income earners completely exposed to market shocks.
Call for Market Monitoring and Consumer Protection
Addressing the President’s proposal to create permanent regional farmers’ markets to eliminate intermediary markups, Walton maintained that structural inflation requires concrete regulatory enforcement rather than rhetorical blame-shifting:
- Enforcing Competition Policy: If retailers and middlemen are extracting excessive markups on produce bought from farmers, the government must deploy the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CCAC) to monitor prices and prevent price gouging.
- Infrastructure Deficits: Sustainable reductions in food costs require direct capital investment in regional cold-storage facilities, rural farm-to-market access roads, and subsidized transport networks.
Walton concluded that diagnosing excessive retail markups while blaming the public’s dietary choices represents a flawed policy response that fails to deliver genuine economic relief.
