By Stabroek News
Copyright stabroeknews
Dear Editor,
I write in reference to Dr. Terrence Campbell’s letter published in the Stabroek News on Friday, October 3, 2025, under the caption ‘Measures announced by the President will do nothing to ease the pressure on the Guyana dollar’ and which also formed part of a news item in the Business section of the same edition.
It is unsurprising that Dr. Campbell would seek to dismiss the measures announced by the President. For someone who frequently parades as a voice of accountability, his position exposes a troubling contradiction. He appears less concerned with sound economic reasoning and more driven by a political agenda. The very measures he now condemns are designed to curb illicit forex leakages and tax evasion, issues he himself has claimed to oppose but has been accused of. His resistance therefore speaks more to political expediency than genuine concern for the country’s economic stability.
It is worth noting that Dr. Campbell, having only just been handpicked by the PNC to serve as a parliamentarian, is now attempting to assert relevance on matters far beyond his demonstrated expertise. His recent posturing reads less like economic analysis and more like partisan politicking dressed up as scholarship.
Dr. Campbell argues that because there was no intervention in the foreign exchange market in 2020, the US$1.2 billion injection so far in 2025 signals unsustainable demand. This is not only illogical, it betrays a profound misunderstanding of basic economic dynamics.
In 2020, there was no need for foreign exchange injections because the central bank was in a net purchase position of US$384 million. At the same time, economic activity was virtually paralyzed. The slowdown was not a mystery: it stemmed from the political and constitutional crisis caused by the APNU+AFC government’s refusal to respect the No-Confidence Motion, the unlawful delay of elections until March 2020, and the subsequent five-month impasse during which APNU attempted to rig the results.
On top of this political instability came the COVID-19 pandemic, which ground the economy to a halt, while APNU’s reckless policies destroyed more than 30,000 jobs. These factors erased demand and eliminated the need for forex injections in 2020. To strip this context, as Dr. Campbell has done, is not only misleading, it is disingenuous.
Equally baseless is his newfound commentary on fiscal sustainability. The claim is laughable when weighed against the facts. Today, Guyana’s fiscal indicators are the strongest they have been in three decades. Our net foreign reserves provide nine months of import cover, a historic high. By contrast, under APNU’s watch from 2015 to 2020, reserves collapsed to less than three months of import cover, dipping below two months at one point. If there was ever a textbook case of fiscal unsustainability, it was under the APNU government, not today.
What Dr. Campbell seeks to portray as economic weakness is in reality the natural by-product of rapid infrastructure-driven growth, which has increased the import bill nearly six-fold over five years. This is not evidence of collapse; it is evidence of expansion, backed by strong reserves and prudent fiscal management and strong leadership under His Excellency Dr. Irfaan Ali.
Dr. Campbell’s assertions therefore lack substance, evidence, and credibility. They are selective, partisan, and misleading. The President’s measures are both timely and necessary to safeguard macroeconomic stability, strengthen fiscal integrity, and ensure the resilience of the Guyana dollar. The facts are clear. Dr. Campbell’s arguments are not. His critique reflects less of an economic analysis and more of a political performance.
Dr. Peter Ramsaroop