Bhoe: TT must brace for economic crisis

TT must brace for a looming economic crisis due to the spread of the coronavirus, said former planning minister Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie.

He was responding on Thursday to comments by the Prime Minister at a post-Cabinet media conference. Dr Rowley said TT was under threat from the coronavirus, not only from a health perspective but economically, and he cited falling stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange.

Tewarie, speaking to Newsday by phone, recalled that in an online post on February 5 he said the country would have to brace itself not simply for the health shock of the virus but the economic consequences as well.

“Since then we have seen a lot of things happen.”

He said energy prices were way down, and energy was this country’s principal revenue base.

He also said world trade was almost coming to an extreme slowdown and China, one of the biggest trading nations in the world, was having a very difficult time containing the health crisis and the economic infrastructure.

“The virus has spread to multiple countries and seems to be proliferating at an astonishing rate.”

The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in China, has infected more than 81,000 people in 48 countries and caused almost 3,000 deaths.

Tewarie said with the impact the outbreak was having on business, stock markets and speculation, a continued fall in commodity prices and in demand for goods and services generally could be expected.

Beyond that, he said, “It is difficult to predict what will happen, because we don’t know how soon the spread of the virus will be brought under control. We don’t know how long things will last and how expansive the spread will be in terms of population and countries.

“We have a major world crisis pending, and TT is bound to be affected ,as indeed all of Caricom will be affected. It puts us in a situation where we really have to brace for a pretty tough few months.

“And at the same time we have got to do everything we can proactively to protect the country and the citizens from the coronavirus and also do whatever we need to do to manage a looming economic crisis.”