Real oil price

THE EDITOR: In his New Year’s message, Prime Minister Keith Rowley spent a lot of time talking about the state of the economy, bemoaning the “fact” that his government was dealing with oil prices of US$30 per barrel.

The fact is, oil prices have not been at US$30 a barrel since February 2016 — almost two years ago.

In reality, oil has been over US$50 a barrel since December 2016, and at the end of 2017, it was over US$61 a barrel.

This is double the price that Mr Rowley talked about extensively in his speech.

I do not know what this means in actual revenue dollars for TT’s economy, but I suspect it is substantial. Yes, it is less than the US$106 per barrel that the UNC regime enjoyed, but it is far more than what he is claiming it is, and far more than what his predecessor in the PNM, Patrick Manning, worked with.

Isn’t this dishonest of Mr Rowley? What has the Government done with this extra revenue? Why are all the “structural adjustments” necessary when the price per barrel of oil is twice what he is claiming it is? Why hasn’t anyone called him on it? How can the people of TT trust a Prime Minister who is deliberately misleading them?

In the event anyone wants to challenge my numbers as “fake news,” I invite them to visit YCharts.com, which is a branch of the internationally respected Forbes Magazine.

R Maharaj, Toronto