00:00data from the world bank for t and t for 2024 and local cso data from 2025 point to a
00:09robust
00:10economy we are a small country 1.4 million persons um in terms of our wealth we have a
00:18gdp per capita of 18 733 usd based on world bank 2024 figures which puts us at basically a middle
00:26income country uh in terms of our labor market we have an employment of 4.8 percent and a labor
00:33force
00:33total size of just under 600 000 persons a literacy rate of 98.8 percent our currency is the tt
00:41dollar
00:41which trades at the most recent data point we pulled at 6.7793 tt dollars to one u.s dollar
00:50the central
00:51bank reports that headline inflation as of january 2026 was 0.7 percent meantime consumer trends have
01:00shown a decline in spending in 2025 onward much smaller declines were recorded in the supermarket
01:06and grocery subsector alongside a modest increase in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics so based on data
01:12from our central statistical office they um theorize that the consumers in trinidad tobago prioritize
01:20necessities over the past year such as food and healthcare related items and scale back on
01:25discretionary purchases however if we um are to experience a boom so our government has announced
01:32several major energy projects from 2027 moving forward we will start to see the services sector
01:38moving upward once again across all the subsectors within services while tnt's energy sector saw close
01:44to five percent decline in 2025 modest growth continues to be recorded in the non-energy sector
01:52to this end the trinidad and tobago manufacturing association is pursuing new trade relationships within
01:59the french caribbean islands we are gathered here today to bridge a gap that is even more
02:05geographical than economic the french caribbean martini guadeloupe and french guyana represent
02:12not just neighboring territories but but a vital gateway to european standards technology and market
02:19access within our region for too long our trade has been limited to traditional narrow challenge
02:26channels and it's time for a new playbook defined by strategic re-globalization
02:33we need to leverage the partnership agreement we must to do this we must fully utilize the carry
02:39forum eu partnership to facilitate seamless trade and investment the ministry of trade is giving its
02:47commitment to further supporting the non-energy sector i looked at the trade data between the countries
02:56countries here today and what the data shows is that trade our trade is roughly made up of about 84
03:04percent of in energy products
03:08we need to change that and do more for all of our exporters especially our non-energy smes that that
03:17seeking to export
03:19the united states of america is currently tnt's largest trading partner meantime the french embassy points to
03:26changing geopolitics in the region which it says necessitate the need to seek new markets while that is
03:33happening we have the reopening of the air route between martinique guadeloupe in the first instance
03:42and trinidad and tobago i think it's four flights per week trinidad martinique twice trinidad guadeloupe twice
03:52four per week this is a wave to be ridden renasa cutting tv6 news
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