Central Bank Governor: Signs of non-energy growth

The Central Bank was able to successfully keep the repo rate at an “historical low” to stimulate the economy, says Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran. “We would like to see a budget that reflect a move to consolidation over the medium term. Whatever those particular measures that the Finance Minister is contemplating, we simply await for when the budget takes place to see what those are. “For the moment, I would say we at the bank did what we consider was the right course of direction in terms of keeping the repo rate at a historical low so that it could help stimulate growth. “I think the Government has the right view in terms of using the capital expenditure programme to help jumpstart the economy, but there are issues in terms of implementation and that is something they need to look at in terms of strengthening the implementation side,” Rambarran said.

 

 

Rambarran spoke to the media yesterday after the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society of T&T hosted a breakfast meeting on the subject of financial stability in T&T at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel, Port-of-Spain. “As I said before, the economy has been fairly resilient against this turbulent, global environment that we have faced over the last five years. I think we have seen some very encouraging signs of growth in the non-energy sector and what we look forward to is a budget that will set the proper tone and direction for the next year in terms of the key challenges that we face now, in terms of reviving growth in the economy and making it sustainable over the next few years,” Rambarran said. The longer-term goal, he said, is to reduce the size of the fiscal deficits.

 

 

“What we need to do is look at how we can transition to smaller fiscal deficits and eventually reaching a balanced position and then possibly building up surpluses. From that particular target then, we look and determine what makes a revenue and what makes an expenditure. The right combination to bring us to those targeted positions and I will not want to get into the specific of revenue and expenditure as that is an area for the Minister of Finance,” he said. Rambarran told the media that the decisions of the Central Bank are not politically influenced. “The mandate of the Central Bank has always been and outside of the electoral cycle. The Central Bank is an independent institution and, therefore, the views and decisions that the bank will take must be in the interest of the country,” Rambarran said.