For­mer Cen­tral Bank gov­er­nor Ewart Williams has said that while the econ­o­my is im­prov­ing, the coun­try still in sig­nif­i­cant debt.

“The econ­o­my is turn­ing around slow­ly in the sense that we are get­ting some good news from the en­er­gy sec­tor. And I think if you look far enough, I think con­fi­dence in the pri­vate sec­tor seems to be im­prov­ing some­what,” said Williams at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts on Mon­day.

He said is­sues there con­tin­ued to be ma­jor.prob­lems with­in the pub­lic sec­tor.

“The prob­lem is the pub­lic sec­tor is an is­sue. You’re in the mid­dle of Petrotrin and the debt is still an is­sue. There­fore the bud­get still re­quires sig­nif­i­cant ad­just­ment,” said the for­mer gov­er­nor.

“Peo­ple tend to be look­ing good times now, I don’t think you can ex­pect good times now be­cause we still have a se­ri­ous debt prob­lem that we need to deal with,” he added.

Williams was award­ed with the Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold) at yes­ter­day’s Na­tion­al Awards cer­e­mo­ny.

He said he was hum­bled by the award adding: “It is a recog­ni­tion that you did some­thing that con­tributed in some way to im­prov­ing the the pub­lic,” said Williams.