Finance Minister Colm Imbert has said that figures now show that Trinidad and Tobago's economic growth in 2022 was better than expected.
A statement by the Ministry referenced the latest statistics for actual economic growth for 2022 published by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) on its website.
"Instead of a decline of -0.1% in Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Trinidad and Tobago in the first quarter of 2022, as previously estimated by the CSO, the CSO has now advised that our economy actually grew by 1.6% in that quarter," the statement said.
It added, "Further, according to the CSO, Real GDP grew by a substantial 6.6% in the second quarter of 2022. This means that for the first half of 2022, according to the CSO, Real GDP grew by a healthy 4.1%, almost twice the growth figure previously estimated for that period. What is interesting and encouraging in the latest data published by the CSO is that it indicates that the non-energy sector experienced Real GDP growth of 4.6% in the first quarter of 2022 and Real GDP growth of 10.5% in the second quarter of 2022, yielding strong economic growth in the non-energy sector of 7.5% in the first half of 2022."
The statement said that the data demonstrated that T&T's economy is recovering from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and that diversification efforts were bearing fruit.
"The data also indicates that our nominal GDP, which is used to calculate our Debt-to-GDP Ratio is also better than previously estimated. In fact, preliminary calculations indicate that nominal GDP for Trinidad and Tobago in the first half of 2022 was $3 Billion more than previously calculated," the statement said.