Finance Minister: economy turning the corner

UPDATE:

Finance Minister Colm Imbert says the economy is “turning the corner,” as several large local companies have reported better earnings in the first quarter (January-March) of this year.

“Surprisingly, in some of my interactions with some of the larger companies, they say their revenue this year is significantly better than last year — for the first three months of the year. I’m talking about retail and manufacturing, manufacturing in particular. In some cases it would not be so, but some of the larger companies are telling me they’re doing better this year than last year, while some of the smaller ones are not.”

Imbert gave Newsday this assessment during an interview on Wednesday after his tour of Scotiabank TT’s Operations and Shared Services Company in Ramsaran Park, Chaguanas. This hub employs 750 people in the bank’s back-office operations, including account processing, customer support, lending verification and enhanced due diligence for TT and 17 other countries in the region.

Newsday also asked Imbert about calls for greater use of renewable energy, so that more natural gas can be exported and earn much-needed foreign exchange. “Renewable energy is very expensive, so until the price comes down, that’s not really a viable option for us, but in terms of buying local, I’m seeing that already. A lot of people are moving towards locally produced goods now because of the shortage of foreign exchange.”

Asked when he would be presenting the mid-year budget review for the financial year 2017-2018, Imbert said, “That’ll be in about a month’s time.” He declined to give any preview of it, replying to Newsday’s question with, “Not at all.”

Having been given a tour by the company’s vice-president Carlene Seudat, Imbert said the bank’s decision to invest $100 million in the state-of-the-art facility — which formally opened its doors in 2013 — “sends a clear signal that aspects of the economy of TT are transitioning from the traditional revenues of oil and gas to business-process outsourcing for financial services.”

Imbert also noted that TT’s free-zone legislation and skilled labour force played a role in Scotiabank’s choosing to set up its hub here rather than another Caribbean country. “Centralised units like this one provide a backbone of banking operations for Scotia regionally and they allow us to achieve our objective of becoming a regional banking services hub.”

During his speech, Imbert took a moment to address Scotiabank TT board member and vice president of Shell TT Derek Hudson, about the energy company’s oil and gas exploration projects. He shared a conversation on April 4 between himself and officials from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) — the New York-based independent credit rating agency —who are in the country.

“We’re always mindful of the need to move away from the over-dependence on oil and gas, and just today (Wednesday), in a meeting with S&P, they asked me a rhetorical question: ‘What would happen if there was another oil-price crash? What would happen to TT’s economy?’ I said we wouldn’t like it. We wouldn’t do well at all.”

ORIGINAL STORY:

Finance Minister Colm Imbert says the TT economy is "turning the corner," as several large local companies have reported better earnings in the first quarter (January-March) of this year.

"Surprisingly, in some of my interactions with some of the larger companies, they say their revenue this year is significantly better than last year – for the first three months of the year. I'm talking about retail and manufacturing, manufacturing in particular. "In some cases it would not be so, but some of the larger companies are telling me they're doing better this year than last year, while some of the smaller ones are not."

Imbert gave Newsday an assessment of the economy during an interview on Wednesday afternoon after his tour of Scotiabank TT's Operations and Shared Services Company in Ramsaran Park, Chaguanas. This shared services hub employs 750 people in the bank's back-office operations, including account processing, customer support, lending verification and enhanced due diligence for TT and 17 other countries in the region.