MSJ: Leadership needed on covid19, economy

MSJ political leader David Abdulah on Wednesday declared that now “is a time for national leadership” to deal with the threats which the spread of coronavirus and the Russia- Saudi Arabia oil price war pose to the economy.

He made those comments in response to statements made by the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Colm Imbert on both matters on Tuesday.

At a news conference at the MSJ’s headquarters in San Fernando, on Wednesday, Abdulah noted Dr Rowley’s comment about now was the time for the country to be responsible in dealing with those challenges.

He said the precipitous fall of world oil prices over the weekend from US$62 to US$33 per barrel was not something which was the PNM or UNC’s fault. Abdulah said the question now is “how do we deal with this problem.”

Calling for national leadership to address this issue, Abdulah said there should be a special parliamentary sitting to ventilate the matter and discuss possible solutions. He also called for national dialogue amongst all stakeholders to discuss the impact of falling oil prices on the economy.

Referring to Imbert’s comments, Abdulah said TT is facing a $3.5 billion deficit in addition to a $5 billion deficit which Imbert alluded to when he presented the 2019/2020 budget in Parliament last October.

“We now have an eight and a half billion dollar gap between government revenue and government expenditure,” he argued.

Abdulah said that made the country’s already difficult foreign exchange (forex) challenges worse. He observed that exports from the energy sector account for nearly 90 per cent of TT’s forex earnings. Abdulah added the MSJ will offer its recommendations to address TT’s economic challenges at a news conference at its San Fernando office on Sunday. He thought it would not be wise to wait for the mid-year review in April or May to determine how Government addresses the new economic challenges facing TT. On Tuesday, Imbert announced Government revised the budgeted oil price from US$60 per barrel to US$40 per barrel and the budgeted gas price from US$3 per mmbtu to US$1.80 per mmbtu. On coronavirus, Abdulah reiterated his question about what were the protocols in the public and private health sectors to deal with the spread of the virus.