Tag Archives: foreign exchange

Within a week, the prime minister-designate, Stuart Young, will assume the role of the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Ferdie Ferreira, a long-time People’s National Movement (PNM) stalwart, said the PNM has never had a succession plan in its 68-year history. He made this comment when there was dissent …

The next general election at its latest is now one year away. It should be incumbent on the contesting parties to tell us how they will manage the economy so that the country will keep its head above water financially. Cutting government expenditure is one way, but that immediately raises …

In August this year, I expressed concern that our country might go broke. A month before, commentators had been calling for an explanation of a withdrawal of TT$1.09 billion from the Heritage and Stabilisation fund. Accountability for the nation’s assets seemed to require specific identification of what aspect of public …

“The real problem is that oil dollars have reduced us all to ‘petro-jumbies’, a people who have never explored our creativity, our talents, our potential. “For generations, we have been lazy slobs, knowing that the oil dollar, down today but up tomorrow, will rescue us from ruin, cushion fuel prices, …

The earthy language of Phillip Alexander may make his commentaries unattractive to some people. It is useful however that he repeatedly sticks it to the establishment, revealing a far better understanding of socio-economic reality than many of our rulers—even though he might not get many votes at the ballot box. …

The budget presented by the Honourable Colm Imbert, minister of finance in the current PNM administration, is his seventh such offering. Not for the first time, he has offered the country a deficit budget, to the tune of $TT9.096 billion, resulting from expenditure in the sum of $TT52.429b and revenue …

Here we go again!  In the Business Guardian of Thursday 8 April 2021, Joel Julien reports on the virtual Demas/Rampersad Seminar Series under the aegis of The UWI St Augustine Department of Economics. ‘Foreign Exchange Challenges in Trinidad and Tobago: What are the real implications?’ the title asks. Let us …

Coming events cast their shadows before them. Pay attention to the news and you can generally foretell when something momentous is about to happen. Like the closing weeks of 2020.  The question, in the light of the impending outcomes, then is: what do we owe each other? Are we, who …

“[…] we must get the new digital economy going. Although liquidity is overflowing at the Central Bank, private sector credit is sluggish; unemployment and underemployment are growing and results thus far from the government-sponsored stimulus loans packages to banks and credit unions have been disappointing. […]” The following is the …

There appears to be broad agreement that the economic challenges, in the wake of Covid-19, are enormous. Facing a precipitous export earnings decline of 41% (roughly $10B in the last year), we should all be thinking about how to navigate the future: how to make the most of what we …

As a small boy, I grew up knowing that my single parent mother was in a sou sou.  Many decades later I have lived to read that the current governor of the Central Bank was surprised to learn of the extent of the practice of sou sou. The czars of …

“[…] Ultimately policy is made by politicians who of course, may have other considerations which influence their decisions. However, just as it would be folly for politicians to ignore the advice of medical professionals in dealing with the coronavirus public health crisis, so too the laws of Economics are inexorable. …