00:00Some of Trinidad and Tobago's leading economic minds came together to assess the country's mid-term economic performance, offering a
00:09mixed review of government's handling of the economy thus far.
00:12I think the government is more than a passing grade for having spent this period stabilizing the ship, as it
00:26were, ensuring that the slide that we were seeing quite visible in the period before didn't continue to proliferate.
00:38However, Dr. Satchewan notes that prior to the administration taking office, several key fiscal indicators, including fiscal balance, current account
00:48balance and non-energy deficits, were already in negative territory.
00:53Since then, both revenue and expenditure have declined with public debt, inching up from 84 to 84.9% between
01:02September 2025 and February 2026. It is expected to rise further.
01:09She also points to continued weaknesses in the non-energy sector, which contracted by 1.2%.
01:16It is concerning to me that the government came into power and, you know, we heard a lot about non
01:24-energy diversification and I want to suggest that that has slowed down significantly.
01:29Many, many very ambitious targets laid out within the budget.
01:34We are now one year in and we are not seeing any signs of where this, how these targets are
01:42going to be realized.
01:43Economist Dr. Darren Conrad describes the current state of the economy as one of fragile stability, highlighting a 1.5
01:51% contraction in retail sales in third quarter of 2025 as a worrying sign.
01:59Now, low retail sales tells me a lot of things is that consumers, households are not spending, either they're not
02:05spending because they don't have or they're being very cautious and they're not very optimistic about the positive and they're
02:10not very confident about the future position of the economy.
02:14He warns that increased taxation could further dampen consumer spending and points to gaps in tax collection, particularly among informal
02:24vendors.
02:24We have a lot of vendors operating on the street, generating substantial income, not even paying a license to operate
02:31other than the free health badge, food badge, they call it.
02:35And they pay no license to operate and they pay no taxes on the income that they earn.
02:40So we need to consider some way of at least charging a license, an operator's license for them to generate
02:48something and have them file taxes just like everybody else.
02:52Former Minister Dr. Bo Tiwari says the country's economic future hinges on its readiness to capitalize on an expected natural
03:01gas boom within the next 18 to 24 months.
03:04The buffer we have from energy keeps the floor from collapsing, but there is no existing private sector engine that
03:13can cause the economy to grow.
03:15There is no growth platform structured in the Trinidad and Tobago economy when energy fails.
03:29That is the reality.
03:31But Professor Roger Hussain paints a more concerning picture.
03:36When you talk about gross official reserves, though, you must mention external debt, which is now about 1.3 billion
03:44U.S. dollars above reserves.
03:47In other words, if we had to pay all our debt in the morning, we wouldn't be able to.
03:52Our reserves is now superseded by external debt by about 1.3 billion.
03:57He adds that the Ministry of Trade will play a critical role in driving recovery, particularly through strengthening intra-regional
04:05trade.
04:06Urvashi Tomori, TV6 News.
04:09graffiti report about step, of all those issues andares from what everybody knows when you're
04:10The aggressions can be haltions for the family key piece.
04:10So how does that take a trip to yourelnate extension?
04:12Good thing.
04:12You just wanna jump in
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