Chief economist at Republic Bank Limited Dr Ronald Ramkissoon doubts the T&T economy can achieve the target growth rate of 2.5 per cent predicted by Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran. "Growth of 2.5 per cent ought not be too difficult for this country to achieve but I have my doubts about us achieving this in 2013," Ramkissoon told the T&T Guardian yesterday.
He said globally energy prices are rising and T&T's energy based economy should also be experiencing a growth."In the region and indeed globally, commodity producers are growing strongly. It is therefore a bit ironic that T&T's economy, as a major commodity producer, cannot do the same. We must be doing something wrong, and doing so for some time," Ramkissoon said.
Rambarran made the growth forecast last week at the release of the Central Bank's latest Monetary Report. He said only two factors could impact on that optimistic prediction–time over runs on scheduled maintenance shut downs by energy companies BGTT and BPTT and labour unrest similar to last year's Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) strike.Also expressing optimism about the economy was Planning Minister Bhoe Tewarie who said T&T is moving into "growth mode". He said the construction and non energy sectors were showing positive growth.
