APNU has challenged warnings that a substantial increase in public servants’ wages would lead to hyperinflation, pointing to the pay awards granted after the 1999 public-service strike and the inflation figures recorded in the years that followed.

In the second part of a statement issued yesterday, the party reiterated its call for a minimum public-service wage of $200,000 a month. It said any proposal for higher pay should be tested against the country’s finances, productivity and inflation, but argued that the possibility of hyperinflation should not be raised without examining the evidence.

The party cited the Armstrong Arbitration Tribunal, which awarded public servants increases of 31.06% for 1999 and a further 26.66% for 2000. As the second increase was applied to the higher salary, APNU said the two awards amounted to a compounded increase of about 66%.

According to Stabroek News, the awards followed the 1999 public-service strike. The newspaper has reported the tribunal’s awards as 31.06% for 1999 and 26.66% for 2000. 

APNU said Guyana had no oil production at the time, yet the wage awards were not followed by hyperinflation. It cited Bureau of Statistics figures showing inflation at 8.6% in 1999, 5.9% in 2000 and 1.6% in 2001. The bureau’s published Georgetown inflation series records those figures. 

“Rather than throwing around the word ‘hyperinflation’, let us examine the numbers and determine what Guyana can sustainably afford today,” APNU said.

The party did not argue that wage increases could be made without regard to their economic effects. It said decisions should take account of inflation, productivity and the government’s finances. Its contention was that the Armstrong awards offered reason to question a claim that substantial increases would inevitably produce a sharp rise in prices.

The historical comparison has limits: inflation in the years after the awards does not establish on its own what effect a $200,000 minimum wage would have now, or what it would cost across the public service. APNU did not provide an estimate of that cost in its statement.

It maintained, however, that oil revenues had given Guyana far greater resources than it possessed in 1999 and that the government should examine what it could afford to pay those who keep public services running.

“Shouting ‘hyperinflation’ is not an economic argument,” the party said. “The serious question is: what can this economy sustainably afford to pay the people who keep the public service running?”

APNU has separately called for collective bargaining, published salary scales and a multi-year wage policy linked to the cost of living and public-service needs.