As Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert pre­pares to de­liv­er per­haps the Gov­ern­ment’s most chal­leng­ing fis­cal pack­age, Caribbean econ­o­mist Dr Claudius Pre­ville says in­creas­ing tax­es will on­ly lead­ing to a shrink­ing of the econ­o­my.
Pre­ville spoke at the Oropouche East Con­stituen­cy vir­tu­al Pre-Bud­get Con­sul­ta­tion at the Oropouche East Con­stituen­cy Of­fice in Debe. Ex­plain­ing that Gross Do­mes­tic Prod­uct (GDP) is a func­tion of con­sump­tion, in­vest­ment, gov­ern­ment spend­ing and Net Trade Flows, he said that with T&T’s debt al­ready high, there is a need to re­duce its re­liance of ex­ter­nal bor­row­ing.
“If con­sump­tion is pos­i­tive, peo­ple are spend­ing mon­ey in the econ­o­my, GDP goes up. If an in­vest­ment is be­ing done, whether it is a for­eign or lo­cal in­vest­ment, GDP goes up. What­ev­er the Gov­ern­ment spends on, the GDP goes up and if the Net Trade Flows are pos­i­tive, mean­ing if ex­ports ex­ceed im­ports, again the GDP goes up.