Leader of the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), Amanza Walton, has slammed has criticised President Ali’s comments to the effect that eating habits, shopping at supermarkets and dining out are contributing to the cost-of-living crisis. She has called it a “perverse attempt” to shift responsibility from the Government onto ordinary Guyanese.
Walton noted that in an oil-rich country, citizens are being told that grants cannot solve the problem and that their consumption habits must change, while the Government has offered no clear explanation for its continued failure to ensure that wages, pensions and public services keep pace with the new economy.
“Even if consumption patterns have changed, that does not explain why the prices of essential goods and services continue to rise.”
Even if spending patterns have changed, Walton argued, this does not explain why prices for essential goods and services continue to climb. She referenced the Consumer Price Index which rose by 2.4% in May 2026, underscoring the pressure being placed on households.
The FGM leader noted that President Ali himself has identified imported inflation, global energy prices, fertiliser costs and high retail mark-ups as contributors to the rising cost of living. These, she said, are structural economic issues requiring decisive Government intervention, not efforts to blame citizens for their choices.
While the President has referred to the possible creation of permanent farmers’ markets as a mitigating measure, Walton said the Government must go further. If retailers are applying excessive mark-ups to produce bought from farmers, she argued, authorities should strengthen market monitoring, consumer-protection measures and competition policy, while investing in transportation and storage systems.
“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.”
Simply identifying excessive retail mark-ups while attributing the broader crisis to how citizens shop or eat, the FGM leader said, represents an “absurdly poor policy response.”
Walton rejected any effort to portray Guyanese people’s inability to adequately feed, clothe and house themselves as a cultural issue.
President Irfaan Ali, during a press conference on Tuesday, responded to questions about the rising cost of living, noting that increases in fertilizer prices inevitably contribute to higher food prices.
The President also said Guyanese should reconsider their eating patterns, arguing that more citizens are shopping at supermarkets than they did four years ago. He pointed out that supermarket mark-ups are substantially higher than those found in local markets, contributing to the prices consumers pay for food and other goods.
“We have to also change our eating patterns in the country….More persons today are shopping in the supermarkets. So that’s a cultural issue that has come upon us that we need to address. People are eating out more than they were eating out four years ago,” Ali said.
