T&T’s co­coa in­dus­try en­tered a trans­for­ma­tive new chap­ter yes­ter­day, with the of­fi­cial launch of the Trini­tario Co­coa Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Trade­mark, an ini­tia­tive de­signed to pro­tect, au­then­ti­cate, and el­e­vate one of the coun­try’s most prized agri­cul­tur­al as­sets.

Cin­e­maONE Group end­ed the 2025 fi­nan­cial year with high­er rev­enue and stronger un­der­ly­ing op­er­at­ing per­for­mance, even as ac­count­ing-dri­ven lease charges and fi­nanc­ing pres­sures pushed loss­es wider.

For the past few years, lo­cal deal­ers pro­mot­ing the sale of elec­tric ve­hi­cles (EVs) have tout­ed the cost-ef­fec­tive­ness of switch­ing to such ve­hi­cles.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance and Min­is­ter of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment, Dr Kennedy Swarats­ingh yes­ter­day ac­knowl­edged that Trinidad Ce­ment Ltd’s de­ci­sion to raise ce­ment prices will place ad­di­tion­al pres­sure on con­sumers, while stress­ing that con­tin­ued en­gage­ment be­tween Gov­ern­ment and the pri­vate sec­tor re­mains cen­tral to nav­i­gat­ing ris­ing costs in the econ­o­my.

As na­tion­al ten­sions rise over crime, po­lice con­duct, and mount­ing calls for the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro to step down, three of the coun­try’s busi­ness or­gan­i­sa­tions are urg­ing a calm, bal­anced, and non­po­lit­i­cal ap­proach to the coun­try’s deep­en­ing se­cu­ri­ty chal­lenges—is­sues that con­tin­ue to im­pact cit­i­zens, com­mu­ni­ties and the wider busi­ness sec­tor.

Trinidad Ce­ment Ltd (TCL) yes­ter­day in­formed its cus­tomers—most­ly hard­ware stores, con­trac­tors and house­holds look­ing to do ren­o­va­tions—that the ex-fac­to­ry price of its ce­ment bags would in­crease by 15 per cent next week Mon­day.

The clo­sure of bars and restau­rants over the past few months has sharp­ened con­cerns about the di­rec­tion of the econ­o­my, bring­ing in­to fo­cus slow­er ac­tiv­i­ty in the ser­vices sec­tor and re­newed anx­i­ety about em­ploy­ment, pub­lic fi­nances, and so­cial sta­bil­i­ty.

Rock Hard Ce­ment is af­firm­ing its com­mit­ment to hold­ing its prices steady, even as T&T’s con­struc­tion sec­tor braces for what can be a sig­nif­i­cant cost shock, fol­low­ing lo­cal ce­ment pro­duc­er, TCL’s sig­nal that it in­tends to in­crease its prices.

Most may as­so­ciate last week’s T&T En­er­gy Con­fer­ence with oil and gas, but the event al­so served as a show­case for re­new­able op­tions.

Econ­o­mist Dr Ronald Ramkissooon be­lieves that lo­cal gov­ern­ment cor­po­ra­tions should be­come more ef­fi­cient and even en­gage in ac­tiv­i­ties that would raise their own rev­enue, giv­en the com­plaints by some cor­po­ra­tions that they do not re­ceive suf­fi­cient funds from the cen­tral gov­ern­ment.

Re­pub­lic Fi­nan­cial Hold­ings Ltd (RFHL) yes­ter­day an­nounced the ap­point­ment of Richard S. Sam­my as group pres­i­dent and CEO of the fi­nan­cial ser­vices group and pres­i­dent and man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Re­pub­lic Bank Ltd, with ef­fect from Jan­u­ary 1, 2027.

For­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Mar­i­ano Browne, is warn­ing that em­ploy­ment loss­es in the bar and restau­rant sec­tor are an im­por­tant sig­nal, as he re­spond­ed to re­ports of mul­ti­ple clo­sures in the leisure.