President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (Doma) Gregory Aboud wants to know why there is a scarcity of US currency at banks, at a time when business volume in T&T has decreased. Aboud said he had a nagging suspicion that the foreign construction sector is consuming the US dollar. “Obviously, this is not what we would consider a healthy state of affairs...to have this chronic shortage, particularly at the time when there is less import demand. The confidence of the investors willing to get involved in new enterprise will affect us.” Since early 2009, Aboud had been saying there was a chronic shortage of US currency. Though the Central Bank has intervened in the first quarter, which brought relief, Aboud said “there has not been much relief in the second and third quarter.” Within the past few weeks, Aboud said, the shortage had intensified with long queues at banks, with the smaller requests for foreign exchange succeeding more quickly than the larger requests.

“The banks have expressed the view that the business community would have to wait, but could not say for how long.” Aboud said he was perplexed by the scarcity since the level of demand for foreign exchange by the business community had decreased due to a drop in business volume for 2009. Aboud said perhaps the Central Bank could tell the national community where this great demand for foreign exchange was coming from. “Since it is obvious that the import demand from the business community has declined even as we head into Christmas.” Aboud said there was a nagging suspicion that the foreign construction sector was consuming a high volume of foreign exchange. “However, we can not validate that suspicion in any way.”

If the shortage continues to persist into Christmas, Aboud said he did not see it affecting business owners. “I personally don’t think there will be a shortage of goods for Christmas. “What this particular problem does...it puts upward pressure on the value of the US dollar and it affects the investors’ confidence in the current economic stability of the country,” Aboud explained. Foreign exchange, he said, was a crucial economic indicator, and that this was something the populace should be concerned about. Not only is the US currency scarce, Aboud said, but its value internationally against major trading currencies continues to be weak. “The forecast for the US dollar is that this weakness will persist and that should attract the attention of all the key players in the economy, particularly as it affects inflation.”