Finance Minister meets with S&P for annual sovereign credit rating review

FINANCE Minister Davendranath Tancoo and other officials met with a Standard and Poor’s (S&P) team at the ministry’s Eric Williams Finance Building head office on July 25.

A ministry release said the meeting was for an annual review of the country’s sovereign credit rating – a metric which measures a nation's ability and willingness to meet its debt obligations.

The assessment considers five criteria – institutional, economic, external, fiscal flexibility, performance and debt burden.

This year’s credit review involved a series of meetings with various divisions in the Ministry of Finance; Central Bank; Ministry of Energy; Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism; Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence; and other institutions and agencies in the private sector from July 23-24, the release said.

"These discussions provided a forum for the S&P team to collect information, contextualise data and statistics and engage with the government's technical experts and policymakers.

"This process will assist S&P in preparing its evaluation of TT's performance and future outlook, focusing on the essential factors that the ratings agency takes into account when assessing a country," the release said.

The S&P team was led by Jennifer Love, associate director, sovereign and international public finance ratings.

She was accompanied by Joydeep Mukherji, managing director, sector lead, Americas sovereign ratings and Louis Favreau, senior analyst, sovereign and international public finance.