Economist: The country is almost broke

[zoom rader]

so when u say 80m us come in, it reaching, but not all of that circulating here.
same ting with a high GDP figure. a few big businesses propping up the figure, while the bulk of the people earning dregs.

is like trickle down economics for tourism.

That's why vene in problems , the undermining of their Forex. It took years but in the end their county sank.

[Dohplaydat]

When Trinis come for carnival, they sell US to family members the banks and government don't see this money

this actually good, this will actually help small people get around imburt and his 'managing the distribution'. it is of no use for a few big players hording it for their own use when they want to play in amercia

and now these same people not going to the bank to buy USD, still a win ZR

You are a total idiot

You call this a win? This is part reason why Venezuela is in problems.

Short term it is a win long term it sinks a country

Returning trinis selling their USD to other trinis is a band aid on a much bigger problem. But at least the small man getting USD.

Take off your carnival hater glasses and focus on the issue. We economy in sh*t and we need new ideas.

What ideas you have besides voting out PNM?

[Dohplaydat]

so when u say 80m us come in, it reaching, but not all of that circulating here.
same ting with a high GDP figure. a few big businesses propping up the figure, while the bulk of the people earning dregs.

is like trickle down economics for tourism.

What you expecting? Men spending the actual USD to buy doubles? They exchanging their forex at the airport, or withdrawing from their US cards at our ATMs, or using their credit card.

That money goes into our banking system, hence we increased our forex reserves. It's the same with any industry.

Look at Sacha Cosmetics selling on Amazon making them 100K USD a month, that money I assume goes into their local bank accounts as USD.

The banks then have USD to sell to businesses and citizens and allow us to cover our imports.

[zoom rader]

When Trinis come for carnival, they sell US to family members the banks and government don't see this money

this actually good, this will actually help small people get around imburt and his 'managing the distribution'. it is of no use for a few big players hording it for their own use when they want to play in amercia

and now these same people not going to the bank to buy USD, still a win ZR

You are a total idiot

You call this a win? This is part reason why Venezuela is in problems.

Short term it is a win long term it sinks a country

Returning trinis selling their USD to other trinis is a band aid on a much bigger problem. But at least the small man getting USD.

Take off your carnival hater glasses and focus on the issue. We economy in sh*t and we need new ideas.

What ideas you have besides voting out PNM?

I showing you how a country sinks and it all starts with the black market Forex.

Black market Forex is a cancer and it sinks countries.

You all only looking at short term and not long term .

[zoom rader]

so when u say 80m us come in, it reaching, but not all of that circulating here.
same ting with a high GDP figure. a few big businesses propping up the figure, while the bulk of the people earning dregs.

is like trickle down economics for tourism.

What you expecting? Men spending the actual USD to buy doubles? They exchanging their forex at the airport, or withdrawing from their US cards at our ATMs, or using their credit card.

That money goes into our banking system, hence we increased our forex reserves. It's the same with any industry.

Look at Sacha Cosmetics selling on Amazon making them 100K USD a month, that money I assume goes into their local bank accounts as USD.

The banks then have USD to sell to businesses and citizens and allow us to cover our imports.

Eh wrong these Amazon businesses set up offshore banking to avoid taxes.

I won't be surprised if Sasha already has an offshore account to deal with International side of his products

[adnj]

6 months of the year is hurricane season. As we tend to sit outside the hurricane belt all sort of pleasure craft and marine vessels could be stored here for a fee. Even tourist cud come here knowing that chances of getting stuck in a hurricane are slim.

Do we take advantage of this? Nope.

Do we even care? Nobody wants to do the work but everybody want to eat and drive the best. Where will the money come from?

Tobago is also a safe haven for hurricanes, them missing out on so much tourism dollars by not having one.

No comparison to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.

Still worth doing, look how many yachts are docked here in Chaguaramas.

ABC islands aren't that much safer than us:

The Gulf of Paria is a protected body of water. Tobago is not near the coast while Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire are.

Tobago does not offer the geography to shelter a vessel more than 30 feet long during a storm.

[Gladiator]

so when u say 80m us come in, it reaching, but not all of that circulating here.
same ting with a high GDP figure. a few big businesses propping up the figure, while the bulk of the people earning dregs.

is like trickle down economics for tourism.

What you expecting? Men spending the actual USD to buy doubles? They exchanging their forex at the airport, or withdrawing from their US cards at our ATMs, or using their credit card.

That money goes into our banking system, hence we increased our forex reserves. It's the same with any industry.

Look at Sacha Cosmetics selling on Amazon making them 100K USD a month, that money I assume goes into their local bank accounts as USD.

The banks then have USD to sell to businesses and citizens and allow us to cover our imports.

That's where the assumption in wrong... the profits never make it to our local banks, it is all banked offshore.

In a way we are still in a colonial setting economically with manufacturing. The 1% use all local labour, subsidized electricity, water and local materials, create products for export then bank all the profits offshore. This is a dangerous model that will increase the economic decline.

[Redress10]

All of you all are still offering solutions that allow trini to earn forex only to turn around and buy foreign goods in exchange anyway.

[Dohplaydat]

6 months of the year is hurricane season. As we tend to sit outside the hurricane belt all sort of pleasure craft and marine vessels could be stored here for a fee. Even tourist cud come here knowing that chances of getting stuck in a hurricane are slim.

Do we take advantage of this? Nope.

Do we even care? Nobody wants to do the work but everybody want to eat and drive the best. Where will the money come from?

Tobago is also a safe haven for hurricanes, them missing out on so much tourism dollars by not having one.

No comparison to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.

Still worth doing, look how many yachts are docked here in Chaguaramas.

ABC islands aren't that much safer than us:

The Gulf of Paria is a protected body of water. Tobago is not near the coast while Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire are.

Tobago does not offer the geography to shelter a vessel more than 30 feet long during a storm.

Again you are wrong.

Canoe Bay was identified by coastal engineers as the proposed site for construction, it just never got off the ground. If a noteworthy storm is approaching these same yachties who store their boats in Chagauaramas during hurricane season can more easily move their boats from Tobago to Chaguaramas.

The fact is there is a huge demand for a marina in Tobago and we are falling asleep on its potential.

[DMan7]

All of you all are still offering solutions that allow trini to earn forex only to turn around and buy foreign goods in exchange anyway.

Another Hypocrisy 101. These same people probably bought goods thru amazon last week and this week coming up too.

[Dohplaydat]

so when u say 80m us come in, it reaching, but not all of that circulating here.
same ting with a high GDP figure. a few big businesses propping up the figure, while the bulk of the people earning dregs.

is like trickle down economics for tourism.

What you expecting? Men spending the actual USD to buy doubles? They exchanging their forex at the airport, or withdrawing from their US cards at our ATMs, or using their credit card.

That money goes into our banking system, hence we increased our forex reserves. It's the same with any industry.

Look at Sacha Cosmetics selling on Amazon making them 100K USD a month, that money I assume goes into their local bank accounts as USD.

The banks then have USD to sell to businesses and citizens and allow us to cover our imports.

That's where the assumption in wrong... the profits never make it to our local banks, it is all banked offshore.

In a way we are still in a colonial setting economically with manufacturing. The 1% use all local labour, subsidized electricity, water and local materials, create products for export then bank all the profits offshore. This is a dangerous model that will increase the economic decline.

And how do you know this? I know for a fact that Sacha's Amazon USD goes to their local USD corporate business accounts. They have offshore accounts to claim revenues from the 1000s of stores in CALA, but again....if that wasn't the case with them or any others, it begs the question.

Why are they banking offshore and not locally?

[Dohplaydat]

All of you all are still offering solutions that allow trini to earn forex only to turn around and buy foreign goods in exchange anyway.

Another Hypocrisy 101. These same people probably bought goods thru amazon last week and this week coming up too.

Yall blaming me for buying a PS5? where can I get a locally made PS5?

Somes goods need to be imported, we need to focus on reducing forex spend on food and other things. Find the low hanging fruit and deal with those first I guess.

I don't have all the solutions but the criticism of these ideas is more than welcome. But we need to stop being negative and saying no, and just starting doing things that can bring us revenue. Stop doing nothing and start doing something, even if it might not be the answer we looking for.

Y'all arguing down tech, a marina, carnival, businesses selling on amazon......no scene, but where allyuh ideas?

We saying no to a Marina in Tobago because of the ABC islands, but we building a 1B Airport is ludicrous, but construction money hadda spend

Tobago doesn't need an airport, it needs some polish on the island, a marina, a ecotourism sector that is well marketed internationally, legalized weed and good weed on sale and at least one private nude beach.

[Penguin]

All of you all are still offering solutions that allow trini to earn forex only to turn around and buy foreign goods in exchange anyway.

Another Hypocrisy 101. These same people probably bought goods thru amazon last week and this week coming up too.

Yall blaming me for buying a PS5? where can I get a locally made PS5?

Somes goods need to be imported, we need to focus on reducing forex spend on food and other things. Find the low hanging fruit and deal with those first I guess.

I don't have all the solutions but the criticism of these ideas is more than welcome. But we need to stop being negative and saying no, and just starting doing things that can bring us revenue. Stop doing nothing and start doing something, even if it might not be the answer we looking for.

Y'all arguing down tech, a marina, carnival, businesses selling on amazon......no scene, but where allyuh ideas?

We saying no to a Marina in Tobago because of the ABC islands, but we building a 1B Airport is ludicrous, but construction money hadda spend

Tobago doesn't need an airport, it needs some polish on the island, a marina, a ecotourism sector that is well marketed internationally, legalized weed and good weed on sale and at least one private nude beach.

This thread was very informative and kudos to you for coming up with ideas.

I need to know though, what happens when we can no longer cover our subsides and salary bill? As I understand, we are dangerously close to not being able to do that.

So, that would entail layingoff workers, gas, electricity and water going up. Possibly VAT going up.

Can any government do this and expect to win the next election?

[hover11]

Why is no one mentioning a devaluation, the TT Dollar is heavily overvalued whether we like it or not it is inevitable

[hover11]

This is the thing , politics always plays a hand in decisions , bitter pills we have to swallow, tough decisions can't be made because no government wants to commit political suicide, nobody wants to be the bad guy because they hadda get a next term , how can the country move forward with that thinking

All of you all are still offering solutions that allow trini to earn forex only to turn around and buy foreign goods in exchange anyway.

Another Hypocrisy 101. These same people probably bought goods thru amazon last week and this week coming up too.

Yall blaming me for buying a PS5? where can I get a locally made PS5?

Somes goods need to be imported, we need to focus on reducing forex spend on food and other things. Find the low hanging fruit and deal with those first I guess.

I don't have all the solutions but the criticism of these ideas is more than welcome. But we need to stop being negative and saying no, and just starting doing things that can bring us revenue. Stop doing nothing and start doing something, even if it might not be the answer we looking for.

Y'all arguing down tech, a marina, carnival, businesses selling on amazon......no scene, but where allyuh ideas?

We saying no to a Marina in Tobago because of the ABC islands, but we building a 1B Airport is ludicrous, but construction money hadda spend

Tobago doesn't need an airport, it needs some polish on the island, a marina, a ecotourism sector that is well marketed internationally, legalized weed and good weed on sale and at least one private nude beach.

This thread was very informative and kudos to you for coming up with ideas.

I need to know though, what happens when we can no longer cover our subsides and salary bill? As I understand, we are dangerously close to not being able to do that.

So, that would entail layingoff workers, gas, electricity and water going up. Possibly VAT going up.

Can any government do this and expect to win the next election?

[adnj]

6 months of the year is hurricane season. As we tend to sit outside the hurricane belt all sort of pleasure craft and marine vessels could be stored here for a fee. Even tourist cud come here knowing that chances of getting stuck in a hurricane are slim.

Do we take advantage of this? Nope.

Do we even care? Nobody wants to do the work but everybody want to eat and drive the best. Where will the money come from?

Tobago is also a safe haven for hurricanes, them missing out on so much tourism dollars by not having one.

No comparison to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.

Still worth doing, look how many yachts are docked here in Chaguaramas.

ABC islands aren't that much safer than us:

The Gulf of Paria is a protected body of water. Tobago is not near the coast while Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire are.

Tobago does not offer the geography to shelter a vessel more than 30 feet long during a storm.

Again you are wrong.

Canoe Bay was identified by coastal engineers as the proposed site for construction, it just never got off the ground. If a noteworthy storm is approaching these same yachties who store their boats in Chagauaramas during hurricane season can more easily move their boats from Tobago to Chaguaramas.

The fact is there is a huge demand for a marina in Tobago and we are falling asleep on its potential.

If it isn't being built then you should recognize that the demand is insufficient but you keep flogging that horse all you want.

[redmanjp]

All of you all are still offering solutions that allow trini to earn forex only to turn around and buy foreign goods in exchange anyway.

Another Hypocrisy 101. These same people probably bought goods thru amazon last week and this week coming up too.

Yall blaming me for buying a PS5? where can I get a locally made PS5?

Somes goods need to be imported, we need to focus on reducing forex spend on food and other things. Find the low hanging fruit and deal with those first I guess.

I don't have all the solutions but the criticism of these ideas is more than welcome. But we need to stop being negative and saying no, and just starting doing things that can bring us revenue. Stop doing nothing and start doing something, even if it might not be the answer we looking for.

Y'all arguing down tech, a marina, carnival, businesses selling on amazon......no scene, but where allyuh ideas?

We saying no to a Marina in Tobago because of the ABC islands, but we building a 1B Airport is ludicrous, but construction money hadda spend

Tobago doesn't need an airport, it needs some polish on the island, a marina, a ecotourism sector that is well marketed internationally, legalized weed and good weed on sale and at least one private nude beach.

This thread was very informative and kudos to you for coming up with ideas.

I need to know though, what happens when we can no longer cover our subsides and salary bill? As I understand, we are dangerously close to not being able to do that.

So, that would entail layingoff workers, gas, electricity and water going up. Possibly VAT going up.

Can any government do this and expect to win the next election?

as imbert say after they raise gas twice, dey eh riot yet.

if they do it now it have 4 years to go b4 the next election, even if 'dey riot now' ppl will get accustom overtime and in 4 years time vote in d same govt.

[adnj]

All of you all are still offering solutions that allow trini to earn forex only to turn around and buy foreign goods in exchange anyway.

Another Hypocrisy 101. These same people probably bought goods thru amazon last week and this week coming up too.

Yall blaming me for buying a PS5? where can I get a locally made PS5?

Somes goods need to be imported, we need to focus on reducing forex spend on food and other things. Find the low hanging fruit and deal with those first I guess.

I don't have all the solutions but the criticism of these ideas is more than welcome. But we need to stop being negative and saying no, and just starting doing things that can bring us revenue. Stop doing nothing and start doing something, even if it might not be the answer we looking for.

Y'all arguing down tech, a marina, carnival, businesses selling on amazon......no scene, but where allyuh ideas?

We saying no to a Marina in Tobago because of the ABC islands, but we building a 1B Airport is ludicrous, but construction money hadda spend

Tobago doesn't need an airport, it needs some polish on the island, a marina, a ecotourism sector that is well marketed internationally, legalized weed and good weed on sale and at least one private nude beach.

This thread was very informative and kudos to you for coming up with ideas.

I need to know though, what happens when we can no longer cover our subsides and salary bill? As I understand, we are dangerously close to not being able to do that.

So, that would entail layingoff workers, gas, electricity and water going up. Possibly VAT going up.

Can any government do this and expect to win the next election?

All of those austerity measures are possible - even likely. Recent examples are Greece and Italy.

Examples:

Public Sector ReformEdit

The number of public-owned companies shall be reduced from 6,000 to 2,000.[21]

Limit of €500 per month to 13th and 14th month salaries of public employees; abolished for employees receiving over €3,000 a month.

8% cut on public sector allowances

3% pay cut for DEKO (public sector utilities) employees.

Public sector limit of €1,000 introduced to bi-annual bonus, abolished entirely for those earning over €3,000 a month.

The number of municipalities shall shrink from 1,000 to 400.[21]

Pension ReformEdit

Public pension reforms included:[22][23]

Limit of €800 per month to 13th and 14th month pension instalments; abolished for pensioners receiving over €2,500 a month.

Return of a special tax on high pensions.[which?]

Women's retirement age increased from 60 to 65 to match men's retirement age.[23]

Mechanism introduced to scale general pension age to life expectancy changes.

Average retirement age for public sector workers increased from 61 to 65.[21]

Tax ReformEdit

Value added tax rises to 23% (from 19%), 11% (from 9%) and 5.5% (from 4%).

Extraordinary taxes imposed on company profits.

Rise in the value of property (and thus higher taxes).

10% rise in luxury taxes and sin taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and fuel.

10% additional rise for all imported cars.

Labor Market ReformsEdit

Changes were planned to the laws governing lay-offs and overtime pay.[specify]

A financial stability fund has been created.[specify]

[The_Honourable]

Glad to see ideas for and against. A lot of what has been said was discussed in the diversification thread which has gone dead because in reality, we still hoping for energy prices to bail us out. Plus the frameworks that should of been created and implemented 2 decades ago for diversification is sparingly being done now. Once you keep race politics at play, the government of the day is safe.

I believe the underground/shadow/informal economy (US black market, guns, narco, sex trade, money laundering, etc) is propping us up more than we think.

I think is only when we hit rock bottom, then we'll realize that the government of the day and us as a people will actually decide to implement strategies to get us out from our financial situation.

[hover11]

If those measures were applied here in trinidad ppl might hang themselves , these are bigger economies than us yet they are making the tough decisions

All of you all are still offering solutions that allow trini to earn forex only to turn around and buy foreign goods in exchange anyway.

Another Hypocrisy 101. These same people probably bought goods thru amazon last week and this week coming up too.

Yall blaming me for buying a PS5? where can I get a locally made PS5?

Somes goods need to be imported, we need to focus on reducing forex spend on food and other things. Find the low hanging fruit and deal with those first I guess.

I don't have all the solutions but the criticism of these ideas is more than welcome. But we need to stop being negative and saying no, and just starting doing things that can bring us revenue. Stop doing nothing and start doing something, even if it might not be the answer we looking for.

Y'all arguing down tech, a marina, carnival, businesses selling on amazon......no scene, but where allyuh ideas?

We saying no to a Marina in Tobago because of the ABC islands, but we building a 1B Airport is ludicrous, but construction money hadda spend

Tobago doesn't need an airport, it needs some polish on the island, a marina, a ecotourism sector that is well marketed internationally, legalized weed and good weed on sale and at least one private nude beach.

This thread was very informative and kudos to you for coming up with ideas.

I need to know though, what happens when we can no longer cover our subsides and salary bill? As I understand, we are dangerously close to not being able to do that.

So, that would entail layingoff workers, gas, electricity and water going up. Possibly VAT going up.

Can any government do this and expect to win the next election?

All of those austerity measures are possible - even likely. Recent examples are Greece and Italy.

Examples:

Public Sector ReformEdit

The number of public-owned companies shall be reduced from 6,000 to 2,000.[21]

Limit of €500 per month to 13th and 14th month salaries of public employees; abolished for employees receiving over €3,000 a month.

8% cut on public sector allowances

3% pay cut for DEKO (public sector utilities) employees.

Public sector limit of €1,000 introduced to bi-annual bonus, abolished entirely for those earning over €3,000 a month.

The number of municipalities shall shrink from 1,000 to 400.[21]

Pension ReformEdit

Public pension reforms included:[22][23]

Limit of €800 per month to 13th and 14th month pension instalments; abolished for pensioners receiving over €2,500 a month.

Return of a special tax on high pensions.[which?]

Women's retirement age increased from 60 to 65 to match men's retirement age.[23]

Mechanism introduced to scale general pension age to life expectancy changes.

Average retirement age for public sector workers increased from 61 to 65.[21]

Tax ReformEdit

Value added tax rises to 23% (from 19%), 11% (from 9%) and 5.5% (from 4%).

Extraordinary taxes imposed on company profits.

Rise in the value of property (and thus higher taxes).

10% rise in luxury taxes and sin taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and fuel.

10% additional rise for all imported cars.

Labor Market ReformsEdit

Changes were planned to the laws governing lay-offs and overtime pay.[specify]

A financial stability fund has been created.[specify]

[Dizzy28]

Afaik a major hindrance in Trinidad and Tobago within leisure marine is that a boat had to fill out paperwork at every port of call no matter that they are all in the same country. And also being Trinidad it was not a seamless pricess.

So a yachtie typically wouldn't want to go Tobago if they already were in Trinidad and vice versa.

so when u say 80m us come in, it reaching, but not all of that circulating here.
same ting with a high GDP figure. a few big businesses propping up the figure, while the bulk of the people earning dregs.

is like trickle down economics for tourism.

That's why vene in problems , the undermining of their Forex. It took years but in the end their county sank.

6 months of the year is hurricane season. As we tend to sit outside the hurricane belt all sort of pleasure craft and marine vessels could be stored here for a fee. Even tourist cud come here knowing that chances of getting stuck in a hurricane are slim.

Do we take advantage of this? Nope.

Do we even care? Nobody wants to do the work but everybody want to eat and drive the best. Where will the money come from?

Tobago is also a safe haven for hurricanes, them missing out on so much tourism dollars by not having one.

No comparison to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.

Still worth doing, look how many yachts are docked here in Chaguaramas.

ABC islands aren't that much safer than us:

The Gulf of Paria is a protected body of water. Tobago is not near the coast while Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire are.

Tobago does not offer the geography to shelter a vessel more than 30 feet long during a storm.

Again you are wrong.

Canoe Bay was identified by coastal engineers as the proposed site for construction, it just never got off the ground. If a noteworthy storm is approaching these same yachties who store their boats in Chagauaramas during hurricane season can more easily move their boats from Tobago to Chaguaramas.

The fact is there is a huge demand for a marina in Tobago and we are falling asleep on its potential.

[SuperiorMan]

What do you guys think of this?


https://guardian.co.tt/news/imbert-dism ... e8c9bdfd89

Finance Minister Colm Imbert has dismissed information in yesterday’s Guardian on the International Monetary Fund. He claimed it was misleading.

The article stated that although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected economic growth of 2.1 per cent for T&T this year, economist Dr Roger Hosein has warned that the economy is in dire straits.

Hosein said while he had great respect for the IMF’s projections, he believes the agency is being “overly optimistic” about T&T’s economic outlook.

Imbert, via a Tweet, subsequently stated that in an attempt to discredit the IMF’s forecast of growth in the T&T economy in 2021, an ‘expert’ falsely claimed that “our economy is 40 per cent lower now than in 2007, when in fact our GDP is eight per cent higher now than then.”

Imbert didn’t respond to messages seeking further information.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning also tweeted on the article, “Convenient use of IMF figures seem to be the order of the day.”

Manning later told Guardian Media there was no in-depth analysis.

He added that the Finance Minister had made public statements that the economy is in a critical state, “But the Minister has been doing a lot of work to really set the stage for growth, coming out of the COVID situation.”

He added: “Several economists, not specifically Dr Hosein, have used the IMF’s figures to criticise the Government. Now that the IMF has said something positive on our growth prospects going forward, they’re questioning the IMF.”

“But Government hasn’t been acting capriciously. We received advice from various international multilateral agencies and we’ve been implementing that advice in the economy to stabilise the economy and to set the stage for growth going forward, post-COVID. We accept times are difficult now, but we’re doing all that we can to improve this,” he said.

[The_Honourable]

What do you guys think of this?


https://guardian.co.tt/news/imbert-dism ... e8c9bdfd89

Finance Minister Colm Imbert has dismissed information in yesterday’s Guardian on the International Monetary Fund. He claimed it was misleading.

The article stated that although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected economic growth of 2.1 per cent for T&T this year, economist Dr Roger Hosein has warned that the economy is in dire straits.

Hosein said while he had great respect for the IMF’s projections, he believes the agency is being “overly optimistic” about T&T’s economic outlook.

Imbert, via a Tweet, subsequently stated that in an attempt to discredit the IMF’s forecast of growth in the T&T economy in 2021, an ‘expert’ falsely claimed that “our economy is 40 per cent lower now than in 2007, when in fact our GDP is eight per cent higher now than then.”

Imbert didn’t respond to messages seeking further information.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning also tweeted on the article, “Convenient use of IMF figures seem to be the order of the day.”

Manning later told Guardian Media there was no in-depth analysis.

He added that the Finance Minister had made public statements that the economy is in a critical state, “But the Minister has been doing a lot of work to really set the stage for growth, coming out of the COVID situation.”

He added: “Several economists, not specifically Dr Hosein, have used the IMF’s figures to criticise the Government. Now that the IMF has said something positive on our growth prospects going forward, they’re questioning the IMF.”

“But Government hasn’t been acting capriciously. We received advice from various international multilateral agencies and we’ve been implementing that advice in the economy to stabilise the economy and to set the stage for growth going forward, post-COVID. We accept times are difficult now, but we’re doing all that we can to improve this,” he said.

I must admit this was the first thing that came to mind when Roger came out today. He went straight into the doom and gloomer trap.

[hover11]

How can there be growth if the country is basically on auto pilot with no revenue earners except taxation? More importantly any one knows when gas prices supposed to increase it seems everything is just being delayed until they can't delay anymore

What do you guys think of this?


https://guardian.co.tt/news/imbert-dism ... e8c9bdfd89

Finance Minister Colm Imbert has dismissed information in yesterday’s Guardian on the International Monetary Fund. He claimed it was misleading.

The article stated that although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected economic growth of 2.1 per cent for T&T this year, economist Dr Roger Hosein has warned that the economy is in dire straits.

Hosein said while he had great respect for the IMF’s projections, he believes the agency is being “overly optimistic” about T&T’s economic outlook.

Imbert, via a Tweet, subsequently stated that in an attempt to discredit the IMF’s forecast of growth in the T&T economy in 2021, an ‘expert’ falsely claimed that “our economy is 40 per cent lower now than in 2007, when in fact our GDP is eight per cent higher now than then.”

Imbert didn’t respond to messages seeking further information.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning also tweeted on the article, “Convenient use of IMF figures seem to be the order of the day.”

Manning later told Guardian Media there was no in-depth analysis.

He added that the Finance Minister had made public statements that the economy is in a critical state, “But the Minister has been doing a lot of work to really set the stage for growth, coming out of the COVID situation.”

He added: “Several economists, not specifically Dr Hosein, have used the IMF’s figures to criticise the Government. Now that the IMF has said something positive on our growth prospects going forward, they’re questioning the IMF.”

“But Government hasn’t been acting capriciously. We received advice from various international multilateral agencies and we’ve been implementing that advice in the economy to stabilise the economy and to set the stage for growth going forward, post-COVID. We accept times are difficult now, but we’re doing all that we can to improve this,” he said.

[sMASH]

all that growth imburt talking bout is the cocaine money they cant hide.
a few billion dollar shipments, and see how best they could get traffic tickets to explain it.

this place like a lil 1970's miami

[Dohplaydat]

all that growth imburt talking bout is the cocaine money they cant hide.
a few billion dollar shipments, and see how best they could get traffic tickets to explain it.

this place like a lil 1970's miami

Wouldn't doubt that at all. Also,

Imbert, via a Tweet, subsequently stated that in an attempt to discredit the IMF’s forecast of growth in the T&T economy in 2021, an ‘expert’ falsely claimed that “our economy is 40 per cent lower now than in 2007, when in fact our GDP is eight per cent higher now than then.”

Colm's figures are intentionally misleading. He needs to use Real GPD, not Nominal GDP. Real GDP is adjusted for inflation.

2007 purchasing power of a TTD is almost twice what it is today when you factor for inflation.

So our GDP being 40% less is correct.

[mragoobir]

So we gehin to riot or not?

[sMASH]

aks gg dat.

[pugboy]

u really taking on impsbert?
the man say around elections time everything real good and we well on the. way to recovery

[timelapse]

He does also say that he does bool we without grease and we eh riot as yet

u really taking on impsbert?
the man say around elections time everything real good and we well on the. way to recovery