AKASH SAMA­ROO

The Deputy Gov­er­nor of the Cen­tral Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go warns that the ef­fects of the pan­dem­ic may be fad­ing but the virus re­mains a risk to the econ­o­my.

How­ev­er, Dr Do­ri­an Noel said the coun­try will ben­e­fit from a full year of an eas­ing of COVID-19 re­stric­tions.

Speak­ing at the Spot­light on the Econ­o­my fo­rum this morn­ing, Dr Noel said that glob­al mar­kets will re­main volatile. He said that ex­port prices will re­main high and on­ly ad­just down­wards once sup­ply chain is­sues and geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions ease.

Dr Noel said it is there­fore pru­dent that the coun­try makes pru­dent de­ci­sions as mis­aligned poli­cies will dam­age sus­tain­able growth.

Dr Noel said it is al­so im­por­tant that this coun­try re­builds its eco­nom­ic buffers which were de­plet­ed due to COVID-19.

How­ev­er, he said ad­di­tion­al in­flows have bol­stered Gov­ern­ment's fis­cal ac­counts with a sur­plus of $3Bn record­ed dur­ing the first 9 months of fis­cal 2022.

The Deputy Gov­er­nor said in­ter­na­tion­al re­serves stands at $US 6.7Bn or 8.2 months of ex­port cov­er.