‘Massive growth’ when there is retrenchment?

Opposition Senator Taharqa Obika has said that announcements by the Trade and Industry Ministry of “massive growth” in the non-energy sector flies in the face of IMF reports, economic logic and conventional wisdom.

Obika, in a press release, said, the ministry’s announcement was meant to “console a failed government” with poor results. He said a Review of the Economy 2019 of the Ministry of Finance shows that 2018 non-energy exports were the lowest for the entire Rowley-led PNM administration.

In fact, exports were so low in 2018 that an increase by as much as twenty percent in 2019 would still not return non-energy exports to 2017 levels. To make matters worse, 2017 non-energy export levels were still 4.4 per cent lower than 2016 levels. Therefore, the Minister of Trade by trumping half year statistics could only be seeking to fool the Prime Minister with false announcements of progress.

He then asked, has the government hijacked the CSO (Central Statistical Office) as a PR data mouthpiece? In the wake of the Prime Minister appointing himself Planning Minister, Obika asked, is government misappropriating information and awarding themselves growth achievements that simply do not exist?

The fact that the CSO website has no export data since 2017 hints at an attempt to hide poor economic performance, he said. Obika pointed out that the PM became line minister responsible for the CSO when he reshuffled his Cabinet on Old Year’s Day and took on the added portfolio of Planning Minister.

“This then begs the question, if the CSO is now a public relations tool of the Rowley PNM? Are these suspiciously self-proclaimed accolades at the expense of quality development data?” He said government has the worst economic record for the past three decades and that facts, when laid bare, are indisputable.

Closure of the oil refinery, Obika said, resulted in disadvantageous foreign exchange flows in crude oil by comparison. A case in point is that at present, crude prices are the highest it has been for the past three months. This is due in no small part to the crisis brewing regarding Iran.

In times like these, TT policy makers usually rejoice. But due to the need to import half of our national output in refined petroleum products, TT suffers a negative forex hit. The loss of in excess of 60,000 jobs over the past four years has been an indictment on bad economic planning, Obika said.

He also pointed out that Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon’s announcement of gains in the non-energy sector came at a time when the country’s largest conglomerate was announcing massive retrenchment. “It does not take genius to know that our economy is failing. Alas the people that suffer are the masses.”

Obika said that the country requires a plan that is as visionary as it is balanced by pragmatism. “The nation requires focus for the masses of unemployed doctors, engineers, masons, carpenters, educators, musicians, wire-benders, costume makers, musicians, technicians and professionals in all spheres.”

Th solution, he said, can be found in the economic transformation espoused by Oppotional and UNC leader Kamla Persad Bissessar.