Guyana’s economy expanded by 19.3% in 2025, marking the sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth, even as the pace of expansion in its oil sector slowed compared with previous years, Finance Minister Ashni Singh said on Monday while presenting the country’s annual budget. The performance underscores the resilience of growth in South America’s newest oil producer, which continues to benefit from rising crude output alongside broad-based gains across non-oil industries.
Singh said the oil sector grew by 21% in 2025, down sharply from the 57.7% expansion recorded the year before, reflecting a more moderate increase in production and exports. At the same time, the non-oil economy expanded by 14.3%, driven largely by agriculture, mining, construction, and services, highlighting the government’s efforts to ensure that growth is not solely dependent on hydrocarbons.
“Our overall real economic growth continues to be supported by strong expansion in oil and gas activity, as well as sustained growth across the non-oil sectors of the economy,” Singh told lawmakers, emphasizing the importance of diversifying the growth base even as oil remains the dominant driver.
Crude oil production reached 261.1 million barrels in 2025, up from 225.4 million barrels in 2024, as a consortium led by ExxonMobil began operations at its fourth offshore oil project in August. All of Guyana’s oil production is currently controlled by the Exxon-led group, which has rapidly scaled up output since the country first started producing oil in 2019.
Guyana exported 260 cargoes of crude oil during the year, Singh said, with 32 of those shipments coming from the government’s share of production under its agreement with the Exxon consortium. Each cargo contains roughly one million barrels of oil, underlining the scale at which the small South American nation has entered global energy markets.
Oil is expected to remain a central pillar of growth in 2026, with production from Guyana’s fifth offshore project due to begin later this year. Exxon has already lifted the country’s production capacity to more than 900,000 barrels per day, and a new project slated for development aims to raise capacity further to as much as 1.15 million barrels per day.
The government plans to continue an infrastructure-focused fiscal strategy, channeling oil revenues into large-scale development projects. These include a target to build 40,000 homes over five years and major investments in expanding and modernizing road networks across the country, as authorities seek to translate oil wealth into long-term economic and social gains.
Guyana has rapidly emerged as a major regional energy player. Now Latin America’s newest oil producer, it has become the region’s fifth-largest crude exporter, trailing only Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia, a remarkable transformation for a country whose economy was once dominated by agriculture and mining.
