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Monday, February 3, 2025

PM insists Govt won’t bow to pressure: There’ll be no devaluation of TT dollar

by

76 days ago
20241119
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley speaks during yesterday’s sitting  of Parliament.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley speaks during yesterday’s sitting of Parliament.

ROGER JACOB

The Prime Min­is­ter says Gov­ern­ment will not bow to “spe­cial in­ter­est pres­sure” to de­val­ue the TT dol­lar. Speak­ing on the for­eign ex­change is­sue for the first time yes­ter­day, the Prime Min­is­ter said the pres­sure to de­val­ue was com­ing from peo­ple who large­ly have for­eign ex­change. He said de­val­u­a­tion will in­crease costs and make those with for­eign ex­change wealth­i­er.

He made the com­ments while in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Dr Kei­th Row­ley al­so said the Fi­nance Min­is­ter was cur­rent­ly meet­ing with stake­hold­ers to de­ter­mine the rea­sons for the in­creased for­eign ex­change de­mand with a view to ar­riv­ing at a con­sen­sus on the way for­ward, which may in­volve “more reg­u­la­tion of the method and man­ner of dis­tri­b­u­tion” by the banks of for­eign ex­change.

Cou­va North MP Ravi Rati­ram asked what ur­gent mea­sures Gov­ern­ment planned to im­ple­ment to ad­dress, what he called, the se­vere re­stric­tions on ac­cess to for­eign cur­ren­cy.

“The amount of for­eign ex­change avail­able in the bank­ing sys­tem in 2023 to 2024 is about the same avail­able in 2014—that is ap­prox­i­mate­ly (US)$7 bil­lion. So there has been no ‘re­duc­tion’ in the mar­ket­place of gov­ern­ment’s sup­port for for­eign ex­change. Of this to­tal, the Gov­ern­ment di­rect­ly in­jects (US) $2.5B per year with the re­main­ing (US) $4.5B ac­quired by the banks di­rect­ly from the Unit­ed States dol­lar-earn­ing clients.

“How­ev­er, in 2024, there is clear­ly an in­creased de­mand for for­eign ex­change due to the growth in the econ­o­my and an in­crease over the years and a taste for for­eign goods and for the use of on­line pur­chas­ing,” he ex­plained.

But the Prime Min­is­ter said Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert was work­ing to de­ter­mine a so­lu­tion.

“The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance is cur­rent­ly meet­ing with stake­hold­ers to de­ter­mine the rea­sons for the in­crease in de­mand with a view to ar­riv­ing at a con­sen­sus on the man­age­ment way for­ward, which may in­volve more reg­u­la­tion of the method and man­ner of dis­tri­b­u­tion by the banks of the Gov­ern­ment’s for­eign ex­change that is in­ject­ed in­to the com­mer­cial bank­ing sys­tem by the Cen­tral Bank of T&T on a month­ly ba­sis.

“The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance has al­ready met with the four largest com­mer­cial banks to dis­cuss this mat­ter and will be meet­ing with busi­ness or­gan­i­sa­tions over the next month,” Row­ley said.

He al­so said there was a mis­align­ment be­tween the ap­petite to spend for­eign ex­change and the abil­i­ty to earn it. There has al­so been in­creased in­sis­tence to mark down the TT dol­lar.

“We have no­ticed a de­lib­er­ate at­tempt in re­cent times to put pres­sure on the Gov­ern­ment to de­val­ue the cur­ren­cy. Let me save them from wast­ing their time to­day: there will be no de­val­u­a­tion of the cur­ren­cy!” Row­ley said to gov­ern­ment desk-thump­ing sup­port.

“The pres­sure on the Gov­ern­ment to de­val­ue the cur­ren­cy is com­ing from peo­ple who have for­eign ex­change large­ly! Us­ing their at­tempt in the coun­try to make this an is­sue, ig­nor­ing the fact that any de­val­u­a­tion could on­ly re­sult in in­creased costs across the board!” Row­ley warned.

“Of course, it will make those with for­eign ex­change wealth­i­er be­cause they will get more T&T dol­lars! So to try to pres­sure the Gov­ern­ment to de­val­ue the cur­ren­cy! “We must be the on­ly coun­try in the world where peo­ple are de­mand­ing to de­val­ue the cur­ren­cy and de­crease their wealth from those who have to pay it.

“This is spe­cial in­ter­est pres­sure, and the Gov­ern­ment will not bow to it!” Row­ley de­clared.

Asked again by Rati­ram when the coun­try could see im­prove­ments to ac­cess for­eign ex­change, Row­ley re­peat­ed that Min­is­ter Im­bert was work­ing with stake­hold­ers. He al­so urged him against pres­sur­ing the Gov­ern­ment.

“And the MP’s (Rati­ram) busi­ness isn’t a for­eign ex­change earn­er, and there­fore he’s not to come in this House and try to pres­sure us on that!” he added.

‘Not aware of query’

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so re­spond­ed to Oropouche West MP Dave Tan­coo, who asked about the Privy Coun­cil’s judg­ment in favour of the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al.

Tan­coo asked if “giv­en the query by British Law Lord, La­dy Sim­ler,” Row­ley would ad­vise whether the Fi­nance Min­is­ter “will be in­ves­ti­gat­ed for his role” in al­leged the fail­ure to pro­vide rel­e­vant ac­cess to doc­u­men­ta­tion pre­vent­ing the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al from con­duct­ing the re­quired au­dit of T&T’s ac­counts.

Row­ley said, “I am not aware of any query by any British or oth­er Law Lord. And I’m not aware of any role of the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance in fail­ing to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion to the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al.”


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