There are over one mil­lion cars on the roads of Trinidad and To­ba­go and that's in­creas­ing by over 2,000 every sin­gle month.

This was among the rev­e­la­tions of Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert, as he sought to show how the econ­o­my of Trinidad and To­ba­go has been pro­gress­ing.

"Ve­hi­cle sales con­tin­ue to charge along at an av­er­age rate of over 25,000 new reg­is­tra­tions per year, with the to­tal num­ber of ve­hi­cles now well over the one mil­lion mark," Min­is­ter Im­bert said.

The pop­u­la­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go is 1.3 mil­lion.

He told the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives that the da­ta comes from the web­sites of the Cen­tral Bank and added that "with all of these pos­i­tive de­vel­op­ments over the last three and a half years, the dogged per­sis­tence and moan­ing and groan­ing of the cyn­ics is baf­fling".

He said the bank­ing sys­tem is an­oth­er in­di­ca­tion of how well the econ­o­my is do­ing.

Min­is­ter Im­bert said: "In stark con­trast to the mantra of doom and gloom, our lo­cal banks are en­joy­ing un­prece­dent­ed growth in in­come and prof­its. Re­pub­lic Bank, for ex­am­ple, has in­creased its an­nu­al prof­its af­ter tax from $1.17 bil­lion in 2015 to $1.32 bil­lion in 2018, an in­crease of 13%, with its to­tal as­sets mov­ing from $66 bil­lion to $70 bil­lion. Not to be left be­hind, First Cit­i­zens Bank has in­creased its prof­its af­ter tax from $630 mil­lion in 2015 to $674 mil­lion in 2018, an in­crease of 7%. FCB’s to­tal as­sets al­so in­creased from $37.5 bil­lion to $42 bil­lion over the pe­ri­od."

As he pre­sent­ed the 2019 Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view, he said con­sumer cred­it grew from $51 bil­lion in De­cem­ber 2015 to $58 bil­lion in De­cem­ber 2018, an in­crease of $7 bil­lion or 14% over the pe­ri­od.

"If we look at prices year on year, re­tail prices have in­creased by on­ly 0.8% be­tween March 2018 and March 2019, while food in­fla­tion has been con­tained at just 2% year on year. These are some of the low­est in­fla­tion rates for Trinidad and To­ba­go for decades, a di­rect re­sult of our fis­cal and mon­e­tary pol­i­cy," he said.

He con­tin­ued: "An­oth­er in­di­ca­tor, life in­sur­ance, re­veals that the to­tal life in­sur­ance con­tracts in Trinidad and To­ba­go have grown from $3.8 bil­lion in 2015 to $4.4 bil­lion in 2018. Oth­er in­di­ca­tors of the health of our in­sur­ance in­dus­try, such as to­tal 26 as­sets, an­nu­ities, de­posits, mu­tu­al funds, all show sig­nif­i­cant growth over the last 3 years."

The min­is­ter said that the to­tal mon­ey sup­ply in cir­cu­la­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go has al­so in­creased from $85 bil­lion to $89 bil­lion over the last 3 years and that mort­gage lend­ing for home own­er­ship has in­creased sig­nif­i­cant­ly since 2015.