'I must be a wizard'

Finance Minister Colm Imbert in the House. FILE PHOTO
Finance Minister Colm Imbert in the House. FILE PHOTO

A feisty Finance Minister Colm Imbert on Friday “rejected abosolutely” a motion raised by the Opposition suggesting the Government had mismanaged the economy.

“The TT economy has turned around and stabilised, growing and on a growth,” he declared in his rebuttal to Opposition motion. He cited the 2018 quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) figures from the Central Statistical Office.

“In the first quarter of 2018, the economy grew by 0.9 per cent. In the second quarter, 2.1 per cent, in the third, 1.5 per cent. By any definition, Madam Speaker, three quarters of economic growth is a turnaround.” GDP data for the fourth quarter will be released in a few weeks, he added.

He also dismissed the motion on the basis of a statement made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday on the near to medium term outlook for the country.

Responding to a question submitted by Newsday at the Fund's fortnightly press briefing in Washington, DC, IMF communications director, Gerry Rice, said the fund believed TT's economy had started showing signs of growth since the second half of 2017, and estimates the economy has returned to positive growth in 2018. The IMF added that it would revise its outlook for TT in its next World Economic Outlook.

Imbert read the Fund’s statement in Parliament.

“This is the IMF communications director in a live press conference yesterday. So Madam Speaker, is not Imbert say so, is not PNM say so, is not CSO say so. It is the IMF say so! I was told I should just read that and sit down because this entire motion is predicated on a fiction. A fiction madam speaker!”

Nevertheless, he continued, citing additional data from the World Bank, which had also revised its projections last month, after Imbert queried their initial numbers.

He said the Opposition was “hurt” that the data supported the Government’s claims that the economy had, indeed, turned around.

“According to them the CSO is unreliable, the Central Bank governor is a PNM. The IMF is run by the PNM and the World Bank is run by PNM. The whole world is run by the PNM apparently! And this minister apparently has the power to call up the IMF and the World Bank and say something good about TT and it happens. I must be a magician! I’m a wizard! I must be a wizard!” If the data suggested doom and gloom, he said, the Opposition would have embraced it.

He also hit back at Opposition MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie, who had opened the debate suggesting data from the Central Bank was compromised because of undue influence from the minister and that its “numbers defy creditability.”

Tewarie had to be cautioned several times by House Speaker Brigid Annisette-George and urged to withdraw statements that could have been seen as unfair to Central Bank Governor Dr Alvin Hilaire, its staff and the staff of the CSO, which is the only official source of data.

Tempering his statements, Tewarie suggested the numbers were “a stretch” and undermined the integrity of the systems for data and information.

“I think that the Central Bank is trying to be authentic and trying to use the best number that it can but at the same time that they are hampered by the fact that the numbers from the CSO are the numbers that have to be used. The bank is very careful to give the population the correct number but somehow you find a situation that is anomalous between the facts and what the growth number is.”

The issue, he said, was that the Finance Minister “quarreled with everybody” who challenged his numbers.

“Everyone who disagrees with the minister he quarrels. The minister of finance of TT is right and everybody else in the world is wrong.”

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"‘I must be a wizard’"

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