Imbert: Credit card spending up by 50%

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert said a 50 per cent hike in the use of credit cards could be partially blamed for Trinidad and Tobago's current foreign exchange (forex) crunch.

He was speaking on November 14 at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine at the Principal's Research Award Ceremony.

Imbert said he had met private bankers two days prior and had asked about credit-card use. He said he had learned that over the past five years, the number of credit cards issued had risen by 50 per cent. Likewise, he said credit-card spending had also risen by 50 per cent.

Imbert lamented that he had to do the research himself.

Likewise, he said National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds could also benefit from university academic research, such as to learn about the behaviour of at-risk young men.

Earlier, Imbert recalled just being told by campus principal Prof Rose-Marie Antoine that previously his ministry had donated $7 million towards a research fund for UWI, St Augustine, but that fund was now almost depleted.

Imbert pledged a fresh donation of $10 million from his ministry towards the UWI research fund. "So, Principal, just write me a letter."

However, even as he lamented having to do his own research into credit-card use without any help, he equipped of the $10 million, "So, it will come with conditions."

Guests giggled, while Antoine shot, "Intellectual freedom!"

Imbert somewhat conceded, by saying most scientific discoveries of the past 1,000 years had come from basic or abstract research rather than applied research.

However he insisted, "But I am asking you to spend that $10 million on applied research."