The amount of for­eign ex­change con­vert­ed by en­er­gy com­pa­nies op­er­at­ing in T&T de­clined by 18 per cent in the first sev­en months of 2023, ac­cord­ing to the Cen­tral Bank’s Ju­ly Eco­nom­ic Bul­letin.

Dur­ing the pe­ri­od Jan­u­ary 1 to Ju­ly 31, 2023, the Cen­tral Bank re­port states that au­tho­rised deal­ers of for­eign ex­change pur­chased US$2.75 bil­lion from the pub­lic, in­clud­ing from the en­er­gy com­pa­nies.

For the same pe­ri­od in 2022, the au­tho­rised deal­er pur­chased US$3.03 bil­lion from the pub­lic. That rep­re­sents a de­cline of 9.3 per cent in to­tal pur­chas­es of for­eign ex­change be­tween 2022 and 2023.

For the pe­ri­od Jan­u­ary to Ju­ly 2023, au­tho­rised deal­ers sold US$3.69 bil­lion to the pub­lic, which was less than 1 per cent more than the US$3.67 bil­lion sold dur­ing the same pe­ri­od in 2022.

The Cen­tral Bank re­port in­di­cat­ed that the net sales of for­eign ex­change to the pub­lic was US$946 mil­lion for the first sev­en months of 2023, which was 47 per cent more than the net sales for the same pe­ri­od in 2022.

In or­der to fa­cil­i­tate mar­ket sta­bil­i­ty, the Cen­tral Bank sold US$737.5 mil­lion to au­tho­rised deal­ers dur­ing the first sev­en months of 2023, com­pared to US$750 mil­lion for the first sev­en months of 2022.

For all of 2022, the au­tho­rised forex deal­ers pur­chased US$5.52 bil­lion from the pub­lic and sold US$6.55 bil­lion to the pub­lic. The sale of for­eign ex­change to the pub­lic in 2022 was 31.8 per cent more than in 2021.

The Cen­tral Bank’s Eco­nom­ic Bul­letin opined: “Con­di­tions in the for­eign ex­change mar­ket re­mained tight in the first sev­en months of 2023. “

Of the US$3.69 bil­lion in for­eign ex­change sales by the au­tho­rised deal­ers to the pub­lic in the Jan­u­ary to Ju­ly 2023 pe­ri­od, the Cen­tral Bank es­ti­mates that cred­it cards ac­count­ed for 37.2 per cent, re­tail and dis­tri­b­u­tion 19.5 per cent and en­er­gy com­pa­nies for 16.2 per cent.

In a sep­a­rate sec­tion, the Cen­tral Bank re­port in­di­cat­ed that for­eign cur­ren­cy cred­it re­gained mo­men­tum, while for­eign cur­ren­cy de­posit with­drawals con­tin­ued.

Ac­cord­ing to the Eco­nom­ic Bul­letin: “In May 2023, for­eign cur­ren­cy lend­ing grew by 12.8 per cent, com­pared with a 7.3 per cent in­crease in No­vem­ber 2022. Of to­tal for­eign cur­ren­cy cred­it, loans to busi­ness­es grew by 12.2 per cent in May 2023, up from the 9.1 per cent uptick record­ed in No­vem­ber 2022.

“Re­gard­ing for­eign cur­ren­cy de­posits, con­trac­tions fluc­tu­at­ed over No­vem­ber 2022 to May 2023, set­tling at a 6.7 per cent fall in May (high­er than the 3.4 per cent fall in No­vem­ber 2022).

“Both busi­ness­es and con­sumers con­tin­ued to with­draw their for­eign cur­ren­cy de­posit hold­ings, as year-on-year de­clines of 7.9 per cent and 8.4 per cent, re­spec­tive­ly, were ob­served in May 2023.

“Of note, in De­cem­ber 2022 com­mer­cial bank busi­ness for­eign cur­ren­cy de­posits re­turned to pos­i­tive ter­ri­to­ry, but one month lat­er com­mer­cial bank con­sumer for­eign cur­ren­cy de­posits de­scend­ed in­to neg­a­tive.

“Mean­while, con­sumer for­eign cur­ren­cy de­posits in non-bank fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions strength­ened fur­ther, and busi­ness­es’ with­drawals de­te­ri­o­rat­ed.”