Tag Archives: foreign exchange

“[…] 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. …

The allocation of foreign exchange to Jane and Beharry Public continues to be inequitable and discriminatory. The ordinary citizen cannot get foreign exchange but franchises keep popping up all over the place. Clearly if you operate in the right circles you can get foreign exchange at will. Who needs another …

I’m backing Joanne “Tigress” Rowley for Calypso Monarch 2019. Her story is real. Her music is good. And, yes, I had a ring side seat to her deciding on the song, Who Feels It, Knows It. Her rendition deals with depression and a mental health issue she dealt with after …

“No minister or prime minister can cause the DPP to prosecute or discontinue a prosecution… No minister or prime minister can instruct the Commissioner of Police to arrest anyone. These offices, which are part of the Executive arm, have their independence explicitly protected in the Constitution as is the Judiciary …

With the election of US President Donald J Trump, international policy and geopolitics are fast changing, becoming more and more unpredictable. Trinidad and Tobago is certainly not immune to the down-stream developments, especially since we depend on foreign investment and trade for the majority of our economic output. One such …

Recently, there has been much noise over Trinidad and Tobago’s capacity to produce the foods that we eat. I use the word “noise” instead of discussion or debate because so much of what is said and written is uninformed. With the economy in full-blown recession and foreign exchange inadequate to …

Nobody has probably delved deeper into our forbidden desires for salt and fats than the people who run Prestige Holdings. Certainly, nobody has been more greatly rewarded for understanding what tickles our hunger hormones and sends them hunting for salt soaked in oil, slathered over chicken, seasoned in dough and …

Central Bank governor Jwala Rambarran was the unlikeliest man to kick the hornets’ nest. But that he did when he named the firms that used the most foreign exchange—or forex—over the past three years. Amidst a cacophony of complaints from businesses and individuals about being denied adequate sums of forex …

Just when we most need our leaders to stand together and assume their joint responsibility for guiding T&T through the rough waters of an economic downturn, we get instead a fireworks display of cheap shots. Hostile relations between a Dr Keith Rowley-led Government and the Governor of the Central Bank …